Spense, Benjamin. Sailed with the first expedition as an interpreter. Captured by the Spanish on Cuba, sent to Spain and imprisoned with Pincarton.
Stobo, the Reverend Alexander. Minister to the second Colony. Deserted the Rising Sun in Carolina and never returned to Scotland.
Tweeddale, John Hay, 2nd Earl and 1st Marquis of. Lord Chancellor of Scotland. As Commissioner gave the Royal assent to the Act creating the Company, 1695. Dismissed by the King. Died 1697 and succeeded by his son
Tweeddale, John Hay, 2nd Marquis of. Member of the Council- General of the Company and Paterson's patron.
Tullibabdine, John Murray, Earl of. Joint Secretary of State for Scotland, 1696-98. Suspected of Jacobite sympathies, he veered between support for the Company and opposition to it.
Tubnbull, Lieutenant Robert. Company officer with the first expedition. Returned to Caledonia with Thomas Drummond from New York. Fought with Fonab at Toubacanti. Captain Pedro's friend.
Vernon, James. English Secretary of State. Originator of "Mr. Vernon's Line" and the Proclamation forbidding the American plantations to give aid or supplies to the Scots Colony. A resolute and cunning opponent of the Company.
Vetch, Captain Samuel. Son of a respected Covenanting minister. A dragoon officer who became a company commander in the first expedition. Later a Councillor. Friend of the Drummonds and one of their party against Pennecuik. Remained in New York, and was believed to have appropriated some of the Company's goods.
Vetch, Captain William. Brother of Samuel. An officer of the Cameronians. Prevented by illness from joining the first expedition as a Councillor. Sailed with the second. Surrendered the Colony to the Spanish against Fonab's advice. Died at sea aboard the Hope.
Queensberry, James Douglas, 2nd Duke of. King's Commissioner to the Estates, 1700. Opponent of the Company, and successfully prevented its party in Parliament from addressing the King. Slept through the Toubacanti Riot.
Wafer, Lionel. Buccaneer surgeon. Lived and worked with the Indians in Darien. Wrote a book about them and the country, a manuscript copy of which Paterson gave to the Directors. Was later called secretly to Edinburgh by the Company, but was dismissed when the Directors had closely questioned him.
Ships
Vessels owned or chartered by the Company of Scotland
the first expedition
Saint Andrew (Captain: Robert Pennecuik), launched at Hamburg and originally called Instauration. Abandoned at Port Royal, Jamaica.
Caledonia (Robert Drummond), launched at Hamburg. Returned to Scotland 1699.
Unicorn (Robert Pincarton), originally the Saint Francis, and re-named Union by James Gibson when he bought her in Amsterdam. Abandoned in New England.
Dolphin (Thomas Fullarton), originally a French ship, the Royal Louis, bought by Gibson in Amsterdam. Lost to the Spanish at Carthagena.
Endeavour (John Malloch), bought by Dr. John Munro at Newcastle. Sunk in Caribbean.
relief ships
Ann of Caledonia, originally the Anna, bought by Thomas Drummond in New York and sailed back to Caledonia.
Dispatch (Andrew Gibson), wrecked off the coast of Islay, February 1699.
Olive Branch (William Jameson), reached Darien in August 1699. Burnt in Caledonia Bay.
Hopeful Binning (Alexander Stark), also reached Caledonia in August 1699. Retired to Jamaica after the loss of the Olive Branch.
Society, chartered at Saint Thomas by Drummond on his return to the Colony.
the second expedition
Rising Sun (James Gibson), built at Amsterdam. Lost in a hurricane off Charleston with all hands, August 1700.
Duke of Hamilton (Walter Duncan), chartered, sunk by a hurricane in Charleston harbour, August 1700.
Hope of Bo'ness (Richard Dalling), chartered. Surrendered to the Spanish at Carthagena, April 1700.
Hope (James Miller), bought by the Company. Wrecked off Cuba, August 1700.
relief ships
Speedy Return (John Baillie), sailed from Clyde with Daniel Mackay, and took Thomas Drummond from Jamaica to Darien. Scuttled on the Malabar Coast by the pirate Bowen.
Content (Ninian Warden), chartered by Thomas Drummond for his second return to Colony. Bought by Company, lost by fire off the Malabar Coast.
Margaret (Leonard Robertson), brought Patrick MacDowall, supercargo, to Jamaica. Provisions she carried distributed among survivors of the second Colony.
Other vessels
Maidstone (Ephraim Pilington), a Jamaican sloop.
Neptune (Richard Moon), a Jamaican sloop.
Three Sisters, a New England merchantman, sent to Darien with supplies from Scots sympathisers in New York.
Rupert (Richard Long), English merchantman which came to spy on the Scots.
Maurepas (Duvivier Thomas), French ship wrecked in Caledonia Bay.
Adventure (John Howell), a Glasgow vessel which the Drummonds attempted to seize at New York.
San Juan Bautista (Don Diego Peredo), flagship of the Spanish blockading fleet.
San Antonio, Spanish warship.
El Florizant, Spanish warship.
Annandale (John ap-Rice), merchantman seized by the English East India Company to prevent it sailing under Scots colours.
Worcester (Thomas Green), English merchantman seized in the Firth of Forth by Roderick Mackenzie on behalf of the Company.
Chronology
1693
June 14th. Scots Parliament passes An Act for Encouraging Foreign Trade. Companies may be formed to trade with any country not at war with the Crown.
1695
May 9th. At the opening of the fifth session of the Scots Parliament, Lord Tweeddale announces that the King will approve legislation for the establishment of a colony, and the formation of a trading company.
William Paterson's draft for such an Act is carried to Scotland by James Chiesly.
June 15th. The Bill is first brought before the Estates and referred to the Committee for Trade.
June 26th. Lord Tweeddale touches the Act with the sceptre and gives it the Royal Assent.
August 29th. First regular meeting of "the gentlemen concerned with the Company" in London.
November 13th. Subscription book for the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies is opened in London. Entire issue of £300,000 is subscribed.
December 3rd. House of Lords debate the Scots Act.
December 5th. London Directors of the Company are ordered to appear before the Lords.
December 17th. Lords and Commons go to the King, presenting an Address of protest against the Scots Company. William III declares himself "ill-served in Scotland".
1696
January. The London Directors have been examined by a Committee of the House of Commons. The House demands their impeachment. Subscribers withdraw and the English venture collapses. William Paterson leaves for Scotland.
Febbuaby 26th. The Company opens a Subscription Book in Edinburgh. Proposed capital for Scotland to be £400,000. A rush to take up stock.
July 23rd. Paterson hands over to the Company all his papers relating to Darien. Proposes a trading entrepot on the Isthmus.
August 1st. Subscription Books are closed. The proposed capital had been reached, and the first call upon it made.
Octobeb. Paterson leaves to open a Subscription Book in Hamburg. James Smith embezzles money entrusted to him by Paterson.
1697
January. Paterson still in Amsterdam with Erskine and Haldane. Fail to interest Dutch merchants in the Company.
February. Paterson and Erskine leave for Hamburg.
April. Final efforts to open a Subscription Book in Hamburg are defeated by Sir Paul Rycaut, English Resident.
September. Paterson is examined by a special committee of the Company. He is exonerated, and acquitted of complicity in Smith's embezzlement, but is stripped of office in the Company.
November. The Company's fleet assembles in the Forth: Caledonia, Saint Andrew and the Unicorn, joined later
by the Endeavour and the Dolphin.
1698
January to June. Ships are equipped and loaded. Councillors, officers and Planters selected.
July 14th. The first expedition sails from Leith, anchors at Kirkcaldy.
July 19th. Fleet sails northward from Kirkcaldy.
August 26th. All the ships have arrived safely at Madeira.
September 2nd. Fleet leaves Madeira.
September 28th. First landfall in the West Indies.
October 3rd. Council takes possession of Crab Island in the name of the Company.
October 7th. Fleet sails for Darien.
November 2nd. First landing in Caledonia Bay.
November 5th. Sick are put ashore. More men land to clear the ground and build huts.
November 15th. Arrival of Richard Long in the Rupert.
December 4th. Treaty of friendship with Captain Andreas.
December 11th. Arrival of the Maurepas.
December 28th. The settlement declared a Colony of the Company of Scotland.
Decembeb 29th. Alexander Hamilton leaves for Scotland with dispatches, journals etc. Major Cunningham also leaves the Colony.
1699
January. The Barliavento Fleet anchors at Portobello. Spanish Governors consider steps to drive out the Scots.
The Dispatch leaves Leith with supplies, is wrecked on the coast of Islay.
February 5th. The Dolphin, with Robert Pincarton aboard, is driven into Carthagena, strikes a rock and is taken by the Spanish.
February 6th. Montgomerie's skirmish. The Conde de Canillas, President of Panama, abandons his attack on the Colony.
March 11th. The Council sends Lieutenant Maghie to Carthagena to protest against the imprisonment of Pincarton and his crew.
March 25th. Alexander Hamilton arrives in Edinburgh.
April 10th. Daniel Mackay leaves the Colony with dispatches for Edinburgh.
April 21st. Robert Jolly, James Montgomerie and William Murdoch leave the Colony.
May. The Olive Branch and the Hopeful Binning sail from the Clyde with provisions and 300 men and women.
May 18th. Colony hears of the English Proclamations against the Colony. The Council prepares to abandon the settlement.
June 22nd. Caledonia is totally abandoned except for six sick men.
July. The Endeavour is sunk soon after leaving Caledonia. The Saint Andrew reaches Jamaica.
August 4th. The Caledonia reaches New York.
August 14th. The Unicorn reaches New York.
August 18th. Second expedition sails from the Clyde, anchors again in Rothesay Bay, waiting for a favourable wind.
September 22nd. Daniel Mackay leaves Edinburgh for the Clyde to join the second expedition. There have been rumours of the desertion of the Colony which he denies as ridiculous.
September 23rd. Second expedition sails without waiting for Mackay or extra provisions.
October 9th. Rumours of the desertion are now confirmed by letters from New York.
October 12th. The Caledonia sails from New York.
Alexander Campbell of Fonab leaves Scotland for England, where he is to find a ship that will take him to the Caribbean and the Colony.
The Council-General of the Company agrees to ask Parliament to send an Address to the King, asking for his protection. Also send one in the name of the Company.
Daniel Mackay leaves for the Colony on the Speedy Return.
November 21st. The Caledonia reaches the Clyde.
November 30th. The second expedition arrives at the settlement. Finds Thomas Drummond there with two sloops.
December 4th-5th. Meeting of the Council and all officers. Agree to send 500 men and all the women to Jamaica.
December 12th. The King expresses his disapproval of all Addresses to him, and orders his Privy Council in Scotland to make his displeasure known.
December 20th. Alexander Campbell hanged for mutiny.
December 21st. Thomas Drummond arrested by Byres and held a prisoner aboard the Duke of Hamilton.
1700
January 10th. The King agrees to ask Spain for the release of the Dolphins crew.
Robert Turnbull returns to the Colony from a visit to the Indians with reports of an imminent Spanish attack.
February 7th. Byres deserts the Colony.
February 11th. Arrival of Campbell of Fonab.
February 15th. Fonab defeats the Spaniards at Toubacanti.
February 23rd. Spanish ships appear off the mouth of the harbour.
February 27ihi Thomas Drummond leaves the Colony.
March 1st. Don Melchor de Guevara lands to the east of the Isthmus, drives back a Scottish attack.
March 3rd. Don Juan Pimienta lands with more men. He invites the Scots to surrender, and when they refuse, moves forward against the neck of the peninsula.
March 5th. The Margaret leaves Scotland with provisions and supplies for the Colony. Patrick Macdowall, supercargo, carries letters.
March 18th. Spanish cross the ditch at the neck and advance on the fort. The Council ask for terms.
March 22nd. Truce ended and the fighting continues.
March 25th. In London, four members of the Council-General of the Company present an Address to the King. He tells them he has said all there is to say on the matter of the Company's grievances.
March 30th. Pimienta offers to treat with the Scots again.
March 31st. Articles of Capitulation are signed. The Scots have two weeks to leave with their ships, guns and supplies.
April 1st. Thomas Drummond returns to the Colony.
April 12th. The Colony is abandoned for the second time. Pimienta takes possession of it.
The Hope of Bo'ness sails to Carthagena. Her master surrenders the ship to the Spanish.
May. The Rising Sun, Duke of Hamilton, and Hope reach Jamaica and anchor off Blewfields.
May 24th. The Scots Parliament assembles but the Duke of Queensberry, Commissioner, prevents the Company's party from pressing for an Address to the King. He adjourns Parliament on the 30th.
June 20th. News of the victory at Toubacanti reaches Edinburgh. Rioting breaks out, mob in control of the city that night.
June 28ih. Letter from New York informs the Company of the desertion of the second Colony
July 21st/22nd. The ships leave Jamaica. The Hope is wrecked soon afterwards off the coast of Cuna.
August 14th. The Rising Sun dismasted in a gale in the Gulf of Florida, sails on northwards.
August 20th/24th. The Duke of Hamilton and the Rising Sun reach Charleston in Carolina.
September 3rd. Both ships are sunk by a hurricane.
September 20th. Pincarton and three other prisoners released from prison in Seville.
October 29th. Scottish Parliament reassembles. Company's party begins its fight to declare Darien a legal settlement, and entitled to Parliament's protection.
1701
May. The Speedy Return and the Content are sent to trade on the African coast.
1703
Late in the year the Speedy Return and the Content, now in the hands of the pirate John Bowen, are destroyed off the Malabar Coast.
1704
January 31st. The Company's chartered ship, the Annandale is seized in the Downs at the instigation of the East India Company.
August 12th. The Worcester is seized in Leith Road as a reprisal for the taking of the Annandale.
1705
April 11th. Thomas Green, captain of the Worcester, is hanged on Leith Sands with his mate and gunner, having been found guilty of pirating the Speedy Return.
1707
May 1st. The Treaty of Union of the two Kingdoms of Scotland and England takes effect. By Article XV, the Company of Scotland is dissolved.
Acknowledgements
Once more i am in debt to those Scots men and women who have made this book possible, by their aid, their advice and their hospitality. The original material from which it has been written is largely in Edinburgh, but a single
sentence here and there is often the result of a wide journey into the Highlands and Lowlands. Wherever I went I found an eager and courteous desire to help, even where my curiosity must have appeared trivial and inconsequential. I am deeply grateful to all my correspondents and friends in Scotland, England and America, though they should not be held responsible for the use I have made of the information they placed before me, or the conclusions I have drawn from it. Particular acknowledgements must be made to the following:
The late Sir William Arbuckle, whose encouragement of my work continued until a week or so of his sad death. Miss Helen Armet, the Archivist of the City of Edinburgh, for her help in determining the exact site of the Company's office. A. M. Broom, of the National Register of Archives (Scotland), for access to private muniments. The Earl of Cromartie, for his hospitality and the freedom of his papers at Castle Leod. John Cushman, of New York, for his kindness in finding books for me. R. N. Forbes, of the Royal Bank of Scotland, for access to the invaluable papers the bank holds. R. E. Hutchison, of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, for his generous help with the illustrations. John Imrie, of the Scottish Record Office, as always tireless on my behalf. Captain Kit S. Kapp, who has sailed his yacht Fairwinds into Caledonia
Bay and knows it better, perhaps, than anyone since the Scots left. J. R. Ker, for valuable introductions in Scotland. R. W. Munro, a stern critic but, as always, generously helpful. Thomas I. Rae, of the National Library of Scotland, for his continued kindness and guidance. William Stewart, Burgh Librarian of Hamilton, for access to Roger Oswald's letters. Finally, to my son, Simon, for his gift and discovery of the contemporary maps that are reproduced in this book, and to my son, John, for his seaman's knowledge of the Caribbean.
In the United States I am obliged to the Library of Congress and the John Carter Brown Library for photo-copies of Caveto Cavetote and Proposals for a Fond, the only existing copies of these pamphlets, I believe, being in their care. I am also indebted to the staffs of the British Museum Reading Room, the London Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Public Record Office, the Scottish Record Office, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the Public Libraries of Banstead, Surrey, and Hamilton, Lanarkshire.
Sources and Bibliography
John Prebble Page 38