In July 1667, the Peace of Breda ended the second Anglo-Dutch war. Under the terms of peace Surinam was ceded to the Dutch (Zeeland). The Articles of Surrender of the Colony of Surinam were agreed, upon the ship Zealand, on 16 March 1667 and confirmed by the Breda treaty. These articles provided for the British subjects’ removal from Surinam, they did not remove. The Treaty of Westminster in 1673 again allowed for the removal of the British subjects and in 1675 commissioners were sent from England to bring away “his Majesty’s subjects, their slaves, goods, and estates.” Removal was voluntary.
Along with the HMS Hercules, two merchant ships were hired for the transportation to Jamaica, the America and the Henry and Sarah. The ships departed Surinam in August 1675 and landed at Jamaica in September 1675.
A List of those transported in his Majesty’s hired ship, America, to Jamaica, viz.:
Mary Urpith, Adam and Dorothy Braythwaite, John and Sarah Urpith, and Robert Hurtly, Christians, with 77 slaves
William and Jane Davidson, Tho. and Anne Robinson, Christians, with 12 slaves
Elias and Jane Ely, Mrs. Sarah Ely, Elias Ely, Sarah Ely, and John Sherwood, Christians, with 34 slaves
Oliver and Jane Hampton, and Philip Shaw, Christians, with 37 slaves
John and Penena Horton, John Horton junr., and Nich. Colegate, Christians, with 19 slaves
William and Mary Smith, William Thomas, Richard, Sarah, and Mary Smith, Joane Starky, Saml. Gates, Christians, with 25 slaves
Peter Manton, Margaret and Eliza Manton, and Solvodore, Christians, with 16 slaves
John, Katherine and Mary Woodward, Christians, with 8 slaves
John Spencer, with 8 slaves
Walter and Amy Greene, Christians, with 2 slaves
Edward and Sarah Saule, Christians, with 26 slaves
Henry, Mary and John Long, and Henry Robinson, Christians, with 11 slaves
Henry and Mary Ferrers, Mary Ferrers, Jeremy, Katherine and Mary Chase, Christians, with 20 slaves
William, Martha, Mary, and Martha Vaughn, Sarah Viccers, James Baker, Mingo and his wife, Christians, with 15 slaves
John, Margett, John and Thomas Pearson, Sarah Holland, Samuel Bacon, Rich., Eliza, John and Mary Armstrong, Christians, with 38 slaves
Isham Teasley
John, Joane, and John Jones, and John Rose, Christians, with 1 slave
Ralph and Rebecca Larkin, and Ralph and Rebecca Larkin, with 3 slaves
Thomas and Frances Gamball, Christians, with 3 slaves
Roger, Bridgett, and John Phillips, Christians, with 2 slaves
William and Eliza Slade, William Slade, and Grace Slade, Christians, with 10 slaves
William and Eliza Whaley, and Richard Loftus, Christians, with 4 slaves
Richard and Prudence Dunn, Christians, with 2 slaves
John and Anne Hanes, Sarah and Patience Haxby, and Rebecca de la Ware, Christians
Eliza Sutton, Anne Larke, and Dorothy Lowe, with 1 slave
William and Margett Carpenter, and Charles Bray, Christians, with 1 slave
Robert and Alice Browne, Christians, with 2 slaves
Thomas Cotton, Christian, with 1 slave
Andrew, Alice and Hierome Clifford, and John and Alice Harwood, Christians
Joyce, John, and Sarah Biggs, Christians, with 3 slaves
Total, 116 Christians and 381 slaves.
Sainsbury, W. Noel, ed., Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series (Volume 9), America and West Indies, 1675-1676, also Addenda, 1574-1674, Preserved in the Public Record Office (Vaduz: Kraus Reprint Ltd., 1964) First Published London: HMSO, 1893. pp. 285-287.
More information about Surinam’s history can be found in the books:
Stedman’s Surinam Life in an Eighteenth-Century Slave Society
and: