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Providence Island (Providencia)

The island in the western Caribbean that held an English colony until the Spaniards took it in 1641, was seized back for Jamaica by Mansvelt's privateers in 1666 and lost again the same August, and afterwards had governors on paper in London who never held it.

Also writtenProvidence (the bare English form used for this island and for New Providence in the Bahamas alike); Old Providence (the distinguishing English form, in Henry Morgan's signed relation of the Panama expedition); Sta. Catarina (the second name given in the commission of 10 November 1666 to Sir James Modyford); Catalina (Lefroy's form for the island Captain Philip Bell left Bermuda for in April 1630); Santa Catalina (the islet at the island's north-west corner)

Two islands here are called Providence; this is the western one. A commission of 10 November 1666 made Sir James Modyford Lieutenant-Governor of "the island of Providence also Sta. Catarina", under Sir Thomas Modyford at Jamaica. Sir Thomas had told Lord Arlington that June why it was worth holding: "its good situation for favouring any design on the rich main, lying near the river which leads to the Lake", meaning Nicaragua. The other Providence is in the Bahamas, at Nassau; the century used the bare word for both.1,7,8

The colony before the privateers

On 7 February 1634 the Company for Providence Island wrote to their Governor, Captain Phillip Bell. Bell had sat on the Bermuda council until April 1630, when he left for Catalina, adjacent to Providence Island, and became its Governor that year.9,10

Modyford, writing to Arlington in June 1666, calls Providence "formerly English, and by the Spaniards' whole armada taken from us in 1641, and ever since carefully garrisoned". Two years later he told the Duke of Albemarle that the island "had never any white men on it until the English came, who first felled the trees and planted the land", and that the privateers had "restored his Majesty to his ancient right".11,12

Mansvelt's night passage

On 8 June 1666 Modyford told Albemarle that two ships of the Curacao fleet had gone to Tortuga and four more, with two French rovers, "to attempt the retaking the island of Providence, where they intend to set up for themselves". Mansvelt, "the old fellow", had sworn not to see the Governor again until he had done the King some service; with the two hundred men left him, eighty of them French, he turned on Providence. A merchant master newly home told Plymouth in August that four privateers took it in mid-May. The two dates do not agree.13,14,15

He was "an excellent coaster, which is his chief if not only virtue", and in the night came "within half a mile of it by an unusual passage among rocks, where they say ship never came", landed early, marched four leagues and took the Governor prisoner. About two hundred soldiers got into the fort and yielded "on conditions to be landed on the main". In it were twenty-seven pieces of ordnance and "100 double jars of powder, shot, and all things necessary".16,17

They owned to very little plunder, only a hundred and fifty enslaved people, and carried off a hundred. Thirty-five men and Capt. Hattsell, keeper of the magazine, stayed behind on an island now handed to Modyford for the King's account. The men said "many of the guns have Queen Elizabeth's arms engraven on them". None of it had been ordered. Modyford went no further than a rebuke, "lest he should drive them from that allegiance which they make great profession of now more than ever".17,18,19

One and fifty men

On 21 August Modyford despatched Major Samuel Smith with a small supply of men to govern the island for the King. The Spanish answer was already at sea, and English-built. Henry Wasey, master of the Concord of four hundred tons, swore he was seized at anchor in Portobello on 25 May 1666, put in irons "on pretence of being a spy", and that his ship was manned by Spaniards and sailed to Providence to retake it.20,21

The three accounts of what followed do not agree. Rawlinsone, Webber and Cree deposed that on 1 August 1666 they espied "six sail of Spanish men-of-war", that Smith put the inhabitants, "we were but one and fifty men", into five or six forts on the Lesser Island, and that they fought four days. Smith swore instead to three Spanish vessels and the Concord, and a summons refused. Modyford, writing home in January 1667 from escaped prisoners' talk, made the garrison forty-eight and the Spaniards six hundred.22,23,24

Santa Catalina is the islet at the north-west corner, and may or may not be the Lesser Island of the deposition.2

Smith surrendered after three days "upon articles for good quarter, which the Spaniards did not in the least perform"; the English, about forty by his count, were prisoners at once. Promised a barque to Jamaica, they went slaves to Porto Bello instead, chained to the ground in a dungeon twelve foot by ten with thirty-three prisoners.25,26

They worked in the water from five in the morning until seven at night, the Spaniards themselves admitting that one Englishman was made to do more work than any three enslaved men. Smith, Sir Thomas Whetstone and Captain Stanley went to Panama and lay in irons for seventeen months.27,28

A governor without an island

A warrant of 12 December 1666 ordered a fuller commission for Sir James Modyford, with power to divide the island into lordships and manors and to grant letters of incorporation to towns. It had been Spanish again since August. In a memorandum for Albemarle he was thinking about the place rather than the grant: the Isle of Providence "must be furnished thence, or it may be lost, as it was in 1641", and "How the 50 men now going are to be maintained".29,30

He reached Jamaica on 15 July 1667 and wrote to Williamson that "Providence was retaken by the Spaniard long since, but we may certainly have it again if his Majesty pleases". On 19 May 1671 he was still at it, commissioning "one Col. Blodre Morgan, a good old soldier", to go out before him as Deputy Governor with three hundred men.31,32

The fleet that only called

Henry Morgan's fleet called here on its way to Panama. In the relation he signed, calendared under 20 April 1671, the island gets one clause: "on the 14th arrived at Old Providence, and on the 15th the Governor submitted and was transported with his men to the main, but four of his soldiers became guides to the English".33

The Company's own paper is at Kew: CO 124/1, its Book of Entries for 1630 to 1641, and CO 124/2, its Journal, running nine years past the fall of the colony.6

Almost every fact above is from Sainsbury's calendar: Jamaica letters of 1666 to 1671 by two Modyfords arguing a case to London, and the depositions they enclosed. The colony that gave the island its name is here only in Lefroy's footnotes; the two Kew volumes above would settle its founding and its governors. Exquemelin, behind most later accounts of Mansvelt and the island, survives here in a transcription too corrupt to quote. No Spanish paper is used, and the relaciones of 1641 and 1666 at Seville hold the other half. For the years this archive is chiefly about there is nothing, and every Providence in those depositions is Bahamian.

What the evidence does not settle

Founding year

  • Providence's founding year is given as 1629 or 1630

Letters of marque

  • Letters of marque may have been granted in 1635

Henry Morgan's role in the 1666 seizure

  • Henry Morgan's personal role in Mansvelt's 1666 seizure is unclear

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. Providence Island in the western Caribbean is not New Providence in the Bahamas, whose town of Nassau was the pirate rendezvous of about 1713 to 1718; seventeenth-century English writers used the bare word "Providence" for both, which is why later English documents distinguish "Old Providence" from "New Providence", a usage the Colonial Office piece titles at The National Archives preserve to this day, and any undated Caribbean mention of "Providence" should be treated as ambiguous until a latitude, a governor's name or an adjacent place name resolves it. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Catalogue records and monograph: Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Providence Island, 1630-1641: The Other Puritan Colony (Cambridge University Press, 1993), for the identity of the western island; The National Archives, Kew, CO 124 series title, Colonial Office and predecessors: British Honduras, Entry Books, and the map title CO 700/BritishHonduras6/7, "Island of Old Providence", for the surviving "Old Providence" usage in catalogue titles. The distinction itself is Confirmed
  2. Providence has the islet of Santa Catalina at its north-west corner, and the working anchorage of both the English and the Spanish periods lay in the channel between the two islands, catalogued on the Admiralty chart as Catalina harbour and shown there as a separate inset at a scale of 1:18,150. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Catalogue records: The National Archives, Kew, MFQ 1/1276, "Colombia: Isla de Providencia. 'Old Providence Island and Coral Bank'", surveyed by Messrs J Cannon, G B Lawrence and F W Sidney in HMS Thunder in 1835, catalogued as showing coastline, soundings, hills and settlements with an inset map of Catalina harbour at 1:18,150 (Confirmed for the chart's existence, wording and scale)
  3. The colony's staple economy failed and the investors turned to privateering against Spain. Disputed The sources disagree, and we say how. Monograph: Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Providence Island, 1630-1641: The Other Puritan Colony (Cambridge University Press, 1993), whose chapter on the failure of the staples is headed "Frustrated Hopes for Economic Development" and whose chapter nine is headed "Governing Puritan Privateers" (Confirmed for the chapter titles)
  4. Providence Island was a slave society in the making: the colony began with English indentured servants, and as indentures expired the planters pressed for enslaved African labour. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Monograph: Karen Ordahl Kupperman, Providence Island, 1630-1641: The Other Puritan Colony (Cambridge University Press, 1993), chapter six, "Servants into Slaves" (Confirmed for the chapter title)
  5. Sir Thomas Modyford wrote from Jamaica to Lord Arlington on 18 December 1670 that Admiral Morgan was at sea with about 1,800 men in 36 vessels, English and French, without naming the island. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. State paper calendar: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 7, 1669 to 1674, "America and West Indies: December 1670", item 359, 18 December 1670, Modyford to Arlington, Col. Papers, Vol. XXV., No. 103 (Confirmed for the letter, which names neither Providence nor Santa Catalina)
  6. The Providence Island Company's own records survive at The National Archives, Kew, as CO 124/1, the Book of Entries, 1630 to 1641, and CO 124/2, the Journal, whose covering dates run to 1650, nine years past the colony's fall, both within the series CO 124, Colonial Office and predecessors: British Honduras, Entry Books, and a Colonial Office map of the island, "Island of Old Providence", is catalogued at CO 700/BritishHonduras6/7 within a group described as plans and charts in Captain J. Speer's West India Pilot, 1771. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Catalogue records: Discovery catalogue, The National Archives, Kew, consulted 2026, for CO 124/1 (Governor and Company of Adventurers of Old Providence Island, Book of Entries, 1630-1641), CO 124/2 (the same body's Journal, 1630-1650) and CO 700/BritishHonduras6/7 ("Island of Old Providence", covering dates given in the catalogue as [1595-1927]). The very broad covering dates on the map are the catalogue's own and are not a dating of the sheet, and the post-1641 content of CO 124/2 is unexamined
  7. A commission of 10 November 1666 appointed Sir James Modyford Lieutenant-Governor of the island of Providence, also Sta. Catarina, to exercise the government according to such instructions as he should from time to time receive from Sir Thomas Modyford, Governor of Jamaica. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: November 1666, no. 1307, calendar page 424; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 166, with a fair copy at no. 1308 (library file csp_v5_pp422-428.txt)
  8. In his letter to Lord Arlington of 16 June 1666 Sir Thomas Modyford writes that he considered the island's good situation for favouring any design on the rich main, lying near the river which leads to the Lake of Nicaragua, and held it his duty to reinforce that garrison and send down some able person to command it. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: June 1666, no. 1216, Governor Sir Thomas Modyford to Sec. Lord Arlington, Jamaica, 16 June 1666, calendar pages 388 to 389; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 100 (library file csp_v5_pp384-392.txt)
  9. J. H. Lefroy, editing the Bermuda records, notes that Captain Philip Bell sat on the Bermuda council down to April 1630, when he left for Catalina, adjacent to Providence Island, of which he became Governor in 1630; Lefroy names no document for the governorship. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern edition of colonial records: J. H. Lefroy, Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands, 1515 to 1685, volume 1 (London, 1877), editorial note following the council list of December 1629 (library file lefroy_v1.txt)
  10. Lefroy records a letter dated 7 February 1634 written by the Company for Providence Island to their Governor, Captain Phillip Bell, formerly Governor of the Somers Islands, mentioning the minister John Ward, who went out to that colony in 1638. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern edition of colonial records: J. H. Lefroy, Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands, 1515 to 1685, volume 1 (London, 1877), Appendix IV, the biographical note on the Rev. John Ward, citing Colonial Papers pages 127 and 271 (library file lefroy_v1.txt)
  11. Sir Thomas Modyford's letter to Lord Arlington of 16 June 1666 describes the island of Providence as formerly English, taken from the English by the Spaniards' whole armada in 1641, and carefully garrisoned by Spain ever since. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: June 1666, no. 1216, Governor Sir Thomas Modyford to Sec. Lord Arlington, Jamaica, 16 June 1666, calendar pages 388 to 389; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 100 (library file csp_v5_pp384-392.txt)
  12. In a letter to the Duke of Albemarle of 5 October 1668 Sir Thomas Modyford asserts that the island of Providence had never any white men on it until the English came, who first felled the trees and planted the land, and argues from that to an ancient English right restored. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: October 1668, no. 1851, Gov. Sir Thomas Modyford to the Duke of Albemarle, Jamaica, 5 October 1668, calendar page 616; Col. Papers, Vol. XXIII., No. 60 (library file csp_v5_pp615-622.txt)
  13. In a letter to the Duke of Albemarle of 8 June 1666 Sir Thomas Modyford reports that two vessels of the Curacao fleet had gone to Tortuga and the other four, joined by two French rovers, had gone to attempt the retaking of the island of Providence, where they intend to set up for themselves. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: June 1666, no. 1213, Governor Sir Thomas Modyford to the Duke of Albemarle, Jamaica, 8 June 1666, calendar page 387; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 98 (library file csp_v5_pp384-392.txt)
  14. In the letter of 16 June 1666 Modyford calls Mansvelt the old fellow and reports him resolved never to see the Governor's face until he had done some service to his Majesty, and that with 200 men, about 80 of them French, being all that were left him, he resolved to attempt the island of Providence. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: June 1666, no. 1216, Governor Sir Thomas Modyford to Sec. Lord Arlington, Jamaica, 16 June 1666, calendar pages 388 to 389; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 100 (library file csp_v5_pp384-392.txt)
  15. A letter written at Plymouth on 21 August 1666 reports that the Oporto merchant, Capt. James Alford, had arrived from Jamaica the day before with news that about the middle of May last four privateers from Jamaica took the island of Providence from the Spaniards, and that one Capt. Sam. Smith was to be sent there as Governor. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: August 1666, no. 1267, John Clarke to Joseph Williamson, Plymouth, 21 August 1666, calendar page 407; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 137 (library file csp_v5_pp402-411.txt)
  16. The same letter states that Mansvelt was an excellent coaster, which Modyford calls his chief if not only virtue, and that he brought his ships within half a mile of the island by night through an unusual passage among rocks where they say ship never came, landed early in the morning, marched four leagues, and surprised the Governor, who was taken prisoner. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: June 1666, no. 1216, Governor Sir Thomas Modyford to Sec. Lord Arlington, Jamaica, 16 June 1666, calendar pages 388 to 389; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 100 (library file csp_v5_pp384-392.txt)
  17. The same letter states that about 200 soldiers got into the fort and yielded on conditions to be landed on the main, that 27 pieces of ordnance, 100 double jars of powder, shot and all things necessary were found, that the fort was very strongly built, and that the men acknowledged very little plunder, only 150 enslaved people. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: June 1666, no. 1216, Governor Sir Thomas Modyford to Sec. Lord Arlington, Jamaica, 16 June 1666, calendar pages 388 to 389; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 100 (library file csp_v5_pp384-392.txt)
  18. The same letter states that the privateers brought off 100 of the enslaved people, left 35 men and Capt. Hattsell, keeper of the magazine, on the island, rendered it to Modyford for his Majesty's account, and said that many of the guns had Queen Elizabeth's arms engraven on them. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: June 1666, no. 1216, Governor Sir Thomas Modyford to Sec. Lord Arlington, Jamaica, 16 June 1666, calendar pages 388 to 389; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 100 (library file csp_v5_pp384-392.txt)
  19. In the same letter Modyford states that he has yet only reproved Mansvelt for taking Providence without orders, and that he dare not go further than rebukes without his Majesty's express orders, lest he drive the privateers from the allegiance they now profess more than ever. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: June 1666, no. 1216, Governor Sir Thomas Modyford to Sec. Lord Arlington, Jamaica, 16 June 1666, calendar pages 388 to 389; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 100 (library file csp_v5_pp384-392.txt)
  20. In a letter of 21 August 1666 to the Duke of Albemarle, Modyford states that he has despatched Major Samuel Smith with a small supply of men to govern the Isle of Providence for his Majesty. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: August 1666, no. 1263, Governor Sir Thomas Modyford to the Duke of Albemarle, Jamaica, 21 August 1666, calendar page 405; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 133 (library file csp_v5_pp402-411.txt)
  21. Henry Wasey, master of the Concord of 400 tons, deposed that he was seized with his ship lying at anchor in Portobello on 25 May 1666 and put in irons on pretence of being a spy, and that the Spaniards manned his ship and sailed her to Providence to retake the island. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition in the calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: August 1668, no. 1827, Deposition of Henry Wasey, master of the Concord, 19 August 1668, calendar page 605; Col. Papers, Vol. XXIII., No. 43 (library file csp_v5_pp600-608.txt)
  22. Robert Rawlinsone, Isaac Webber and Richard Cree deposed before Sir Thomas Modyford that on 1 August 1666 they espied six sail of Spanish men-of-war, that the Governor, Major Samuel Smith, commanded the inhabitants, in their words we were but one and fifty men, to keep in five or six forts on the Lesser Island, and that they fought the Spaniards four days until four forts were taken and they surrendered. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition in the calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: October 1668, no. 1851 enclosure, Deposition of Robt. Rawlinsone, Isaac Webber, and Richard Cree, before Sir Thomas Modyford, calendar pages 616 to 617; Col. Papers, Vol. XXIII., No. 60 I. (library file csp_v5_pp615-622.txt)
  23. Major Samuel Smith, late Governor of Providence, deposed on 19 August 1668 that he held the island in quiet possession by commission from Sir Thomas Modyford and that in August 1666 he was summoned to surrender by three Spanish vessels, a New England ketch taken from the English, and the English ship Concord of 30 guns commanded by Henry Wasey and manned by Spaniards, and that he refused. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition in the calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: August 1668, no. 1826, Deposition of Major Samuel Smith, late Governor of Providence, 19 August 1668, calendar page 605; Col. Papers, Vol. XXIII., No. 42 (library file csp_v5_pp600-608.txt)
  24. In a letter to the Duke of Albemarle of 14 January 1667 Sir Thomas Modyford reports, on the word of prisoners lately escaped from Porto Bello, that the Spaniards, having notice how weak the English party at Providence was, being but forty-eight, pressed the English ship Concord under Capt. Wasy and with other vessels manned with six hundred men recovered the island in three days. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: January 1667, no. 1383, Gov. Sir Thomas Modyford to the Duke of Albemarle, Jamaica, 14 January 1667, calendar page 441; Col. Papers, Vol. XXI., Nos. 5, 5 I. (library file csp_v5_pp437-444.txt)
  25. Smith's deposition states that the enemy landed and that after three days' siege he was forced to surrender upon articles for good quarter, which the Spaniards did not in the least perform, the English, about forty, being immediately made prisoners. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition in the calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: August 1668, no. 1826, Deposition of Major Samuel Smith, late Governor of Providence, 19 August 1668, calendar page 605; Col. Papers, Vol. XXIII., No. 42 (library file csp_v5_pp600-608.txt)
  26. The Rawlinsone, Webber and Cree deposition states that after the English laid down their arms the Spaniards refused them the barque promised to carry them to Jamaica and carried them slaves to Porto Bello, where they were chained to the ground in a dungeon twelve foot by ten in which there were thirty-three prisoners. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition in the calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: October 1668, no. 1851 enclosure, Deposition of Robt. Rawlinsone, Isaac Webber, and Richard Cree, before Sir Thomas Modyford, calendar pages 616 to 617; Col. Papers, Vol. XXIII., No. 60 I. (library file csp_v5_pp615-622.txt)
  27. The same deposition states that the prisoners were forced to work in the water from five in the morning till seven at night, and at such a rate that the Spaniards confessed they made one of them do more work than any three enslaved men. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition in the calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: October 1668, no. 1851 enclosure, Deposition of Robt. Rawlinsone, Isaac Webber, and Richard Cree, before Sir Thomas Modyford, calendar pages 616 to 617; Col. Papers, Vol. XXIII., No. 60 I. (library file csp_v5_pp615-622.txt)
  28. Smith's deposition states that all the English except Sir Thomas Whetstone, the deponent and Captain Stanley, who were commanders, were forced to work in irons and chains at the Spaniards' forts with many stripes, that many had since died through want and ill-usage, and that the three commanders were sent to Panama and cast into a dungeon and bound in irons for seventeen months. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Sworn deposition in the calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: August 1668, no. 1826, Deposition of Major Samuel Smith, late Governor of Providence, 19 August 1668, calendar page 605; Col. Papers, Vol. XXIII., No. 42 (library file csp_v5_pp600-608.txt)
  29. A warrant of 12 December 1666 directed the clerk of the Crown to prepare a commission to Sir James Modyford giving him power to divide the island into lordships and manors and to grant letters of incorporation to towns. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: December 1666, no. 1349, Warrant to Thos. Agar, clerk to the Crown, 12 December 1666, calendar page 432; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 196 (library file csp_v5_pp428-437.txt)
  30. In an undated memorandum for the Duke of Albemarle, calendared under November 1666, Sir James Modyford states that the Isle of Providence must be furnished from Jamaica or it may be lost, as it was in 1641, and asks how the fifty men now going are to be maintained and whether it were not better to allow pay at first until the island be better filled with planters. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: November 1666, no. 1327, Mem. by Sir James Modyford for the Duke of Albemarle, calendar page 427; Col. Papers, Vol. XX., No. 182 (library file csp_v5_pp422-428.txt)
  31. In a letter to Joseph Williamson of 29 July 1667 Sir James Modyford writes that it will be no news that Providence was retaken by the Spaniard long since, but that the English may certainly have it again if his Majesty pleases, and that he arrived at Jamaica on the fifteenth of that month. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 5, 1661 to 1668, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1880), America and West Indies: July 1667, no. 1536, Sir James Modyford to Williamson, Jamaica, 29 July 1667, calendar page 485; Col. Papers, Vol. XXI., No. 88 (library file csp_v5_pp478-490.txt)
  32. In a letter to Sir Joseph Williamson of 19 May 1671 Sir James Modyford states that he has given a commission to one Col. Blodre Morgan, a good old soldier, to go before him to Providence Island as Deputy Governor, that Morgan may depart in four or five days in a ship hired on purpose, and that he may have three hundred men by the time he arrives at the island. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 7, 1669 to 1674, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1889), America and West Indies: May 1671, no. 534, Sir James Modyford to Sir Joseph Williamson, Jamaica, 19 May 1671, calendar page 219; Col. Papers, Vol. XXVI., No. 63 (library file csp_v7_pp209-222.txt)
  33. In his signed relation of the Panama expedition, calendared under 20 April 1671, Henry Morgan states that the fleet sailed on 8 December, arrived at Old Providence on the 14th, and that on the 15th the Governor there submitted and was transported with his men to the main, four of his soldiers becoming guides to the English. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 7, 1669 to 1674, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1889), America and West Indies: April 1671, no. 504, A true account and relation [by Henry Morgan] of this my last expedition against the Spaniards, calendar page 202; Col. Papers, Vol. XXVI., No. 51 (library file csp_v7_pp189-209.txt)