John Yeamans

Sir John Yeamans, 1st Baronet (born February 1611 in Bristol , England , † August 1674 probably in Charleston , in today's US state of South Carolina ) was an English colonial official and governor of the Province of Carolina .

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The exact date of birth and death of John Yeamans has not been recorded. He was baptized on February 28, 1611 in Bristol as the son of a brewer. He later joined the Royal Army of England. He served there as a colonel during the English Civil War . After the defeat of the royal troops in this war, he fled to Barbados with other royalistswhere he had bought land years earlier. In the following years he acquired even more lands and became a judge and member of the local administration. His first wife also died there. In business he worked with a man named Benjamin Berringer, who died under mysterious circumstances in January 1661. When Yeamans married his widow a few weeks later, the suspicion arose that he had something to do with Berringer's death. But it remained with rumors.

In 1663, Yeamans and eight English nobles made the first attempt to establish a colony with settlers from Barbados near Cape Fear on the coast of what would later become the US state of North Carolina . In this context, Yeamans was given the hereditary English title Baronet , of Bristol in the County of Gloucester, on January 12, 1665 . He also became the first and only governor of this colony, which did not last long. Another push followed in 1669 to establish a colony south of the American east coast. This time the settlers came from England and made a stopover in Barbardos on the arduous and costly road. It was agreed that Yeamans would be the first governor of the new colony. This accepted and the ships continued. With the Bermudas , John Yeamans changed his mind. He renounced the office intended for him and appointed William Sayle , who was then almost 80 years old, in his place as governor of the colony to be founded. Yeamans himself returned to Barbados while the settlers drove on and eventually established the Province of Carolina in 1670, with William Sayle becoming its first governor as requested by Yeamans.

Sayle's unfortunate and brief tenure as governor ended with his death in March 1671. He was succeeded by his deputy Joseph West . Soon afterwards, John Yeamans came to the new colony, where he now claimed the office of governor. This request was initially rejected. In the following year, however , he was appointed colonial governor by the so-called proprietors , the rich upper class, against the resistance of many colonists . He took up this office on April 19, 1672. His tenure was overshadowed by internal tensions and external threats from Indians and Spaniards. In addition, Yeamans proved to be corrupt and ran into his own pocket. The Proprietors now operated the deposition of Yeaman and replaced him with his predecessor Joseph West. It is not entirely clear whether Yeamans ever found out about this. He died between August 3 and August 13, 1674, although the sources disagree about his place of death. He probably died in Charleston . But there are also reports that Barbados was the place of his death.

literature

• Robert M. Weir: Yeamans, Sir John, first baronet. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X ( online edition ).

Web links

• John Yeamans in the South Carolina Encyclopedia
• John Yeamans at Wikitree.com

• John Yeamans in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baronetage: Yeamans of Bristol, Gloucs at Leigh Rayment's Peerage

predecessor	title	successor
New title created	Baronet, of Bristol 1665-1674	William Yeamans