Willem Hunthum
Encyclopedia
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
owner of Tortola
Tortola
Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named it Tortola, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". Columbus named the island Santa Ana...
in what later became the British Virgin Islands
British Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...
.
Life
Details of Hunthum's life are actually relatively scant. Control of the islands was to pass to the British not long after Hunthum's acquisition of them, and the British asserted root of title to the islands dating back to certain patents granted to Earl of CarlisleJames Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle
James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle was a Scottish aristocrat.-Life:He was the son of Sir James Hay of Fingask , and of Margaret Murray, cousin of George Hay, afterwards 1st Earl of Kinnoull.He was knighted and taken into favor by James VI of Scotland, brought into England in 1603, treated as a "prime...
for Tortola
Tortola
Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named it Tortola, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". Columbus named the island Santa Ana...
(as well as certain other islands) by King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
approximately 30 years earlier. Accordingly records relating to Hunthum's title were at best ignored by the British, and possibly destroyed in support of their competing claim made against the Dutch throne later.
Ownership of Tortola
Hunthum was a RotterdamRotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
merchant, who purchased the property right to Tortola, and possibly certain other of the Virgin Islands, from the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
during the 1650s. It is believed that Hunthum's interest in the Territory related (or became related) primarily to the nascent trade in slaves
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
rather than the agricultural opportunities to grow sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
and cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
.
It appears Hunthum's interest in his acquisition was limited, and he never sought to actively develop his investment. It is not even certain that he ever visited Tortola, although it is believed that a house was built for him there.
The British seized control of the islands in 1672 at the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Dutch War
Third Anglo-Dutch War
The Third Anglo–Dutch War or Third Dutch War was a military conflict between England and the Dutch Republic lasting from 1672 to 1674. It was part of the larger Franco-Dutch War...
. By the end of the hostilities in 1678, Hunthum had died. It was not until 1684 that the Dutch ambassador, Arnout van Citters, formally requested the return of Tortola, and he did so (curiously to British eyes) based the claim on the private rights of the widow of Willem Hunthum.
But Tortola was never actually returned to the widow. Part of the problem was that Sir Nathaniel Johnson
Nathaniel Johnson (politician)
Sir Nathaniel Johnson was a soldier and a Member of Parliament for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1680–1689. He was appointed governor of the Leeward Islands in 1686. He travelled to the Province of Carolina in 1689, becoming its governor in 1703...
, the new Governor of the Leeward Islands, was ordered to restore the island to such person or persons who have "sufficient procuration or authority to receive the same..." However, there was no one apparent to restore the island to. In the event, Johnson did nothing.
Later, November 1696 a subsequent claim was made to the island by Sir Peter van Bell, the agent of Sir Joseph Shepheard, a Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
merchant, who claimed to have purchased Tortola on 21 June 1695 for 3,500 guilders from Hunthum's estate.
Legacy
Although Hunthum's interest in the islands was only very limited, he nonetheless achieved a form of legacy in the name of modern day Hunthum's Ghut, a channel which divides Great Mountain from Fahie Hill, and also lends its name to the region of Road TownRoad Town
-See also:* Government House, the official residence of the Governor of the British Virgin Islands located in Road Town-External links:*****...
at its base.
There is also a ruin of a grand house higher up within the Ghut, accessible only by foot, and it is reasonable to conjecture that this was the grand house built by Hunthum to oversee his interests, although it is not clear that he ever actually stayed there.
See also
- History of the British Virgin IslandsHistory of the British Virgin IslandsThe History of the British Virgin Islands is usually, for convenience, broken up into five separate periods:* Pre-Columbian Amerindian settlement, up to an uncertain date* Nascent European settlement, from approximately 1612 until 1672...