Suriname to Jamaica aboard the America, 1675

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:

The Dutch in the Caribbean and in Surinam, 1791/5-1942

Leave a Reply