The first time a Proclamation of the start of the reign of a new king was read in Anguilla was on 7 October 1727. And, now on 11 September 2022 we have only the second reading of such a Proclamation.
King George I having passed away in June 1727, his German-speaking son, George II, acceded to the throne in Britain. At that time, the Roman Catholic Stuarts, banished to France, were still claiming that they were the rightful heirs to the British throne. People’s loyalties in Britain were split between the Stuart pretenders and the new Hanoverian dynasty. At the end of the seventeenth century much blood was shed in Britain over this succession question.
In 1727, the Hanoverian dynasty was still new and controversial in Britain and the colonies. The authorities in London were anxious to ensure that all the colonies in America were loyal to the Protestant faith and the Hanoverian succession. So, the Governor in Chief in Antigua was sent to the outlying islands of his government to read the Proclamation and to oversee the senior officials and planters signing it. Failure to sign meant banishment or imprisonment or worse. It is noticeable that only 76 free male Anguillians put their signatures in support of the Proclamation. The list does not include Abraham Howell Jr, Anguilla’s first Deputy Governor, nor many other prominent Anguillians. I enjoy reading the stilted, archaic language, which has not changed much over the years. It reads,
“WHEREAS it hath pleased Almighty God to call to His mercy our late sovereign lord, King George of blessed memory by whose decease the Imperial Crown of Great Britain, France and Ireland, as also the supreme dominion and sovereign right of the islands of Nevis, St Christopher, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla and the rest of His late Majesty’s Caribbee Islands lying to Leeward from Guadeloupe to the island of St John de Porto Rico and all other His late Majesty’s dominions in America are solely and rightfully come to the high and mighty prince George Prince of Wales;
We therefore the Deputy Governor with numbers of the principal planters and inhabitants of this Island do now hereby publish and proclaim that the high and mighty prince George Prince of Wales, is now by the death of our late Sovereign of happy memory become our only lawful and rightful liege lord George the Second by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, as also the supreme dominion and sovereign right of the islands of Nevis, St Christopher, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla and the rest of His late Majesty’s Caribbee Islands lying to Leeward from Guadeloupe to the island of St John de Porto Rico and all other His late Majesty’s dominions in America To whom we do acknowledge all faith and constant obedience with all hearty and humble affection, beseeching God by whom Kings reign and Queens do reign, to bless the Royal King George the Second with long and happy years to reign over us.
Given at the Valley Division in this our Island of Anguilla the seventh day of October in the year of Our Lord God one thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven.
God Save the King.”
In his later dispatch of 12 October, Governor Mathew reported that “His Majesty was proclaimed at Anguilla on the 7 day of October at the Valley Division in the most solemn, decent and cheerful manner the poor inhabitants there were capable of, and the Proclamation signed.” 1
It was important for a colonial governor, then as now, to reassure his superiors back in London that all is well with his colony. They do not appreciate receiving bad news. However, the Governor’s reassurances were not true. Governor Mathew glossed over what really happened at the signing to reassure the Committee that his colony of the Leeward Islands was working smoothly.
The following year, he gave a more truthful version about what happened at the signing.2 The event, he now wrote, was characterized by “the misbehaviour of some of the planters.” He does not explain what he meant by ‘misbehaviour’. More likely there were protests and demonstrations at the time of the signing.
It was not that any of the Anguillians supported the Stuarts. They had no interest in backing the Roman Catholic Stuart dynasty in its struggle to reclaim the British throne. They were not concerned about the Stuarts or any other dynasty. Their disapproval of the event was more likely caused by events closer to home.
In 1727, Anguillians were just emerging from a long and severe drought that lasted more than 40 years. Their land, they pleaded, was exhausted and barren. In recent times, large numbers of them had emigrated to Tortola, St Croix, and Vieques in search of better living conditions. The colonial records of the time are filled with petitions from the Anguillians requesting permission to settle the wetter islands to the west that offered them more potential for growing crops that would provide food and some small income. For over an entire generation, this proved impossible in Anguilla. However, there was to be no relief from the colonial authorities.
Between 1650 and 1825, no Governor-in-Chief or other British official showed any interest in the condition and affairs of the Anguillians. Prior to this 1727 visit, the only time the Anguillians saw the Antigua-based Governor in Chief in Anguilla was in the year 1717 when Governor Hamilton visited to admonish them against emigrating without his permission. Some 108 men under the leadership of Abraham Howell fled to Vieques in desperation, only to be captured or killed and the survivors enslaved by the Spaniards. The 1,171 persons who remained in Anguilla were permanently in a state of near starvation.
Why should they, ten years later, care about the coronation of King George II? One can imagine the outrage and indignation that was felt by the sturdy, self-reliant, but poverty-stricken islanders when they were called together, not for some act of government relevant to their condition, but to join in what for them must have been a completely meaningless and irrelevant ritual of signing a Proclamation in honour of an unknown, distant, and uncaring King. Indeed, no other such Proclamation was again declared in Anguilla for another 300 years.
The 2022 Proclamation was not greeted with either great enthusiasm or street riots, but largely with indifference. Conditions in Anguilla now are considerably different from 1717. Presently, Anguilla is just emerging from a severe three-year drought. But subsistence agriculture is no longer the main occupation of the Anguillians. They found a suitable new crop, tourism, that flourishes in drought and is depressed and disappointed by heavy rainfall. It is easy to reap and provides rich pickings.
The heavy sullenness that pervades the island is not due exactly to starvation. The young survive in this expensive economy by holding down two jobs at a time. Deprivation and poverty pervade mainly the elderly in the community. While the young and healthy emigrate in proportions similar to 1717, the elderly have no such opportunity. It is only when one is in the supermarket and takes the time to observe the many shoppers who are carefully checking the prices of the goods on the shelves and counting the pennies in their purses, that you are struck at how the 2022 reading resonates with that of 1727.
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1 CO.152/16, folio 56: Mathew to the Committee on 12 October 1727.
2 CO.152/16, folio 251: Mathew to the Committee on 20 January 1728.
