After the Sabans turned away from piracy, they
took to legitimate trade on the high seas. This put them in contact with
prominent families from other islands, which resulted not only in trading
relations but also in marriages and in some cases resettlement. As early as
1729 we see trade being carried on by Saban captains, and for the record, we
select a few here, taken from the old harbour records of St. Maarten:
02.08.1729, barque 'Success', Master James
Simmons arriving from Nevis at St. Martin with 8000 shingles, 1000 ft.
planks, 4 casks of tobacco, 2 casks of turpentine, 2 casks oil, 4 cases with
candles.
27.07.1730, barque owned by Vice Commander Charles Simmons of Saba arrived
at St. Martin via St. Kitts with 20 slaves, Captain Hercules Halley of Saba.
20.05.1735, from St. Martin to Saba, Commander Charles Simmons, on board
another vessel owned by him, with as Captain William Winfield having 789
lbs. of cotton on board.
11.06.1735, 'DeSwaluwe', owned by Vice Commander Charles Simmons, at St.
Martin with passengers from Saba.
Schooner "Mayflower" in roadstead of St. Eustatius - 1929.
We follow the lives of several families from
Saba, through the centuries, starting with the Wood family on St. John. This
will serve to demonstrate how Sabans moved throughout the West Indies and
settled there, There have also been migrations and settlements in the other
Dutch Antillean islands, the most recent of which are taking place to St.
Maarten, with an outward migration to the Netherlands. In former times
Sabans migrated to the island of Bermuda and Richmond Hill in Queens, New
York; descendents of those Sabans are now achieving at home what our
forefathers had to go abroad in search of: Max Nicholson and Family in radio
communications, Eddie and Al Hassell in shipping, Franklin Johnson and
family in tourism, Harold Levenstone and Diana Medero in tourism, Carlyle
Granger and his children in education and commerce, the Wilsons of St.
Johns, the Sortons and the Smiths of The Bottom are all active. These and
other Sabans are now setting the stage for future historians to look back on
and to evaluate their contributions. Most Sabans no longer need to emigrate
or to make a living from the sea. Most now work on land and for the
Government. While many think the merits of Government employment are
doubtful, one Saban in an interview with the National Geographic Magazine
looked at it philosophically by stating that 'no one ever yet drowned in the
Post Office'.
Contrary to the popular theory of intermarriage, Sabans have constantly
sought brides and husbands overseas throughout the centuries. This is still
going on, most recently with Sabans marrying citizens of the U.S.A.,
Columbia, the Dominican Republic as well as to residents from a number of
the now independent West Indian territories which formerly were part of the
British empire.
As the economy improves on Saba a number of Sabans have returned home and
more are planning to, while foreigners are now settling in Saba. Time will
tell whether or not the next generation will be able to accept new
challenges as well as our ancestors were able to.
Let us therefore now look back on those who were forced to break the ties
which bound them to Saba, to find out if in their lives and in their
achievements on other shores, there is a lesson for us today.
In a history of the Enighed Estate and the Ruin of St. John, U.S.V.I.,
prepared by George F. Tyson, Jr. we read the following:
The earliest recorded owner of Enighed was agent
Johannes or John Wood, who is shown by Peter Oxholm's original map of St.
John as being on possession of the estate in 1780. Johannes Wood's ownership
is confirmed by the 1786 land list, which is the first such list in the
Danish or U.S. archives to specify the ownership of either Enighed Estate or
Number 1, Cruz Bay Quarter.
The precise data the Wood family acquired Enighed is unknown. No family
member is cited as owning property in St. John by the land list extant for
the period before 1786. The best guess is that the Wood family purchased the
estate sometime between 1750 and 1757, when the family name begins to appear
in the historical records.
Although undoubtedly of English ancestry, the Wood family came to the Danish
West Indies from the Dutch island of Saban the middle of the eighteenth
century. Doing business as both merchants and planters, family members
acquired a number of plantations on St. Thomas and St. Croix as well as on
St. John.
After 1750 John and Richard Wood were doing business in St. Thomas. Peter
Wood, a resident of St. Croix, owned property on that island and on St.
John. A Jacobus Wood lived on St. John in 1758.
The Wood females helped to extend the family connections through marriage
with prominent local landowners and politicians. For example, in 1765, two
Wood women are recorded as being married to members of the Durloe family of
St. John, while a third Wood female from Saba was the wife of Captain de
Nully of St. John. Catharina Wood married Abraham Oijen, another St. John
Planter, around 1775. Johanna Elizabeth Wood was married to Johannes van
Beverhoudt of St. John.
Johannes Wood, who was most likely the son of William, is first recorded as
being in St. Thomas in 1750, at which time he took out a "burgher brief".
Between 1765 and 1771 he resided on that island and was married first to a
member of the Creuitzer family and later to a Maleville. The bulk of his
property holdings was on St. Thomas, but he spent at least some time on St.
John, where he acted as Government Agent or Representative. He died in 1803,
bequeathing a considerable fortune to his heirs.
Johannes Wood owned Enighed until 1791, when he deeded the estate to George
Hassell and Co. George Hassell, a merchant and planter of St. Thomas, had
also come to the Danish islands from Saba. He was married to Johannes Wood's
daughter Anna. The Wood-Hassell transaction has the appearance of an
intra-familial transfer of property for legal or credit purposes, because in
1798 Johannes reacquired Enighed and it remained in his hands until his
death five years later.
Under the ownership of Wood and Hassell Enighed became a major sugar estate.
We do not have production figures for the years before 1803, but we do know
that in 1791 the estate had some 57 slaves and was valued at 66, 702 West
Indian rigsbankdaler, a considerable sum for the time.
At the time of Johannes Wood's death in 1803, Enighed had 225 total acres;
210 acres were planted in sugar and 15 acres in pasture and provisions.
There were 64 slaves and the estate buildings consisted of a dwelling house,
a horsemill, a boiling house, a cure house, a sick house and kitchen, a
still house, a store house and 30 negro houses. The estate had increased in
value to 77,085 rigsbankdaler.
Prominent among the former families of Saba
which made a name for themselves abroad was the Dinzey family.
Thomas Dinzey (whose people came from England by way of Barbados and St.
Kitts to Saba) was Vice-Commander of Saba from 1778 to 1801, Commander from
1801-1803 and Vice-Governor from 1803-1809 during Dutch rule and occupation
by British and French.
A grandson Thomas Dinzey Winfield, a member of the local Island Council, was
Commander of Saba from May 5th, 1830 until his death on June 15th, 1836.
Thomas Dinzey's son Richard, who was born on Saba in 1796 moved to St.
Barths were he died August 15th, 1860. He married Eliza Peterson whose
family came from Denmark. She was born in 1802 and died in St. Barths in
1886. Richard Dinzey was instrumental in raising funds and having erected
the first Anglican Church on the island of St. Barths. There is a plaque on
an interior wall which reads as follows:
Sacred to the memory of Sir Richard Dinzey,
Knight a native of the island of Saba and for half a century a citizen of
St. Bartholemey.
He was made a knight of the Royal Order of Wasa by King Oscar I for fidelity
to his sovereign and devotion to the interest of his adopted country. A
faithful friend of Protestant Episcopacy to him the professors of the faith
in this island are indebted for the religious privileges they now enjoy, of
which this church erected by the exertions and liberal gifts, is a standing
proof. He expired on the 15th of August, 1860 in the 65th year of his age As
a faithful tribute and in gratitude this tablet is erected by his devoted
wife and children. Reader, seekest thru his monument. Look around!
Among Richard Dinzey's children, a daughter
Roberta married on June 5th, 1850 a Swedish nobleman, Carl John Ridderhjerta.
When St. Barths was sold to France in 1878, Carl was appointed first Vice
Consul at Gustavia. Their daughter Augusta Gabrielle Robertina married Axel
Victor Emanuel Dolman, also a Swedish nobleman, on February 24th, 1873. Axel
died in 1926 and Augusta passed away on May 17, 1922. They had no children.
Richard's son Dr. John Knightly Dinzey (born 1837 died Oct. 3rd, 1885) was
the medical officer at St. Kitts. He graduated from Jefferson Medical
School, U.S.A. His own innovative technique for the treatment of tetanus was
used with great success.
Joseph Dinzey, another of Richard's sons, was sent at the age of fourteen to
Burlington College in New Jersey, U.S.A., to complete his preparatory
education. This was an Anglican boy's boarding school and he remained at the
school for four years. In 1853 he entered St. Augustine's College,
Canterbury, England to prepare for the Ministry. Joseph Dinzey returned to
the West Indies and was nominated assistant curate of St. George's Church in
St. Kitts.
He was ordained priest on August 19th, 1858 and one year later received his
license as Curator of Christ Church, Nicola Town and St. Mary's Church,
Cayon on the island of St. Kitts. He left his post after one year and then
moved to St. John's Church, Antiqua as curate of St. Lukes Chapel. The
Reverend Joseph Dinzey is now remembered as the founder of the Compton
Anglican Girls College in Compton County Quebec (1874-1884).
The Dinzey family burial plot is in St. Jean's
cemetery next to the airport on St. Barths. In that same cemetery there are
a number of graves of people with typical Saban surnames such as Hassell,
Leverock and Simmons attesting to the large amount of trade and commerce in
former times between Saba and St. Barths.
The Every's of St. Eustatius, as they later became known, were planters and
merchants. This remarkable family originated from Saba. They were originally
associated with the Sulfur Mine on Hell's Gate. On June 16th, 1838 Mr.
Daniel James Hassell Every (28) married Alice Eliza Dirgin Zeelig (20). He
moved to St. Eustatius where his bride's family owned some estates. He later
acquired the estate Schotzenhoek (425 acres). The family also became
involved in the retail trade. Later they went on to acquire the largest
estate on St. Kitts (Brothersons 840 acres) and an estate on Nevis (Stony
Grove Plantation). This last plantation, as was Brothersons on St. Kitts,
was a working sugar plantation. It belonged at one time to the Pinney family
about whom Richard press wrote 'A West India Fortune'.
The Every's also owned a retail dry foods business on St. Maarten on the
Frontstreet, where until recently Risdon's Snackbar was located. J.C.
Waymouth mention this in his book 'Memories of St. Martin, N.P.' under the
year 1916:
Mr. J.G.C. Every in addition to his many other
business concerns acquired store property of its former owners, the firm of
A.A. van Romondt and Co., and for a few years ran a retail dry goods
business, which only ceased in consequences of a tragic nature.
The Every's were expanding their business
interests in the Eastern Caribbean at a time when most prominent Saban
families were moving out of this area to the United States. Waymouth also
mentions the following event that took place in 1917:
The month of April saw the celebration of the
nuptials of editor Waymouth's second daughter Henrietta Eloisa with Johannes
Carl Every Esq. planter and merchant of St. Eustatius. Rev. C. McInt.
Darrell performed the ceremony at the Bride's residence on Wednesday
evening, 4th, inst.
Waymouth also records an event which took place
on St. Eustatius on April 15th, 1918. Dr. J. Hartog in his 'Bovenwindse
Eilanden' also calls attention to an unusual meeting of the Court of Policy
in which the two local councillors decided to parcel out a dose of blows to
Gezaghebber van Grol.
Things in Statia in April assumed a distinctly
warlike character. In consequence of the scarcity of provisions an
application to the Court of Policy was sent in by 30 of the inhabitants and
a meeting having been convened on the following day the letter bearing in it
proof of the gruesome condition of the island was laid over by the
councillor Every (J.G.C. Every) who tried his best to procure, if no more,
at least ten barrels of yams for the people. To this request let it be said,
in short--the Gezaghebber was obdurate and resisted the efforts of both
Landsraden to obtain the yams stated. He went further and precipitated a
fight which resulted in the necessity for his won facial treatment.
The other local councillor was also an estate
owner Mr. W.J.F. Mussenden. They fled to St. Kitts. When it was learned that
Mr. W.C. de la Try Ellis, who had been appointed to try the case, would only
impose a fine they returned to St. Eustatius. They were fined Fls. 400,--and
Fls.300,-- respectively. They retained their seats as local councillors as
the law had no provisions for their dismissal.
Just a few years later the fortunes of the Every's were reversed through a
series of tragic accidents.
The Every's youngest son was careless in passing through a barbed wire fence
on the Estate Shotzenhoek on St. Eustatius. He passed a loaded shotgun
through the fence with the barrel pointed at him. The trigger got caught in
the barbed wire and young Avery was killed.
In recording the hurricane of August 28th, 1924 Mr Waymouth describes the
other Every tragedy:
The saddest loss from it, that we know of is
that of the French schooner 'Verdun". On board of her, as she lay at anchor
in the roadstead of Charlestown, Nevis, at 3 p.m. on that fatal day were
fourteen souls, among whom Messrs. J.G.C. Every, owner of Brothersons Estate
and his brother Gilbert. The schooner in the height of the storm was seen
putting to sea in a Southerly direction and nothing was seen of her since.
The Every's were left with only one daughter who
later married an American sea captain by the name of Mosher. They sold their
estate Schotzenhoek on St. Eustatius to Arthur and Carl Anslijn of Saba and
moved to Nevis to their estate 'Stony Grove'. They remained there for the
rest of their lives. Part of that estate is now owned by a Saban, namely Mr.
Hubert Leverock, of St. Johns. Mr. Carl Buncamper said that Mr. Every
welcomed all visitors from Statia and was fond of saying 'each stray bird I
hear singing in the trees I hope it is a bird from Statia, as I always long
for news from my old home island'.
Apparently the daughter had no children and the sons only illegitimate
children so that when the parents died on Nevis it meant the end of the
remarkable Every family which had expanded from humble beginnings on Saba to
the ownership of estates and business throughout the Eastern Caribbean.
It seems that ever since the last century there already existed trading
links with Barbados. However it was only after Dutch replaced English as the
language of instruction in the schools on Saba in 1906, that many prominent
Sabans moved their families to Barbados in search of a better education for
their children.
Among the families that moved to Barbados was that of Captain William
Benjamin Hassell, a Captain who in his lifetime owned many large trading
schooners. On Barbados the Sabans gradually established themselves as
boatbuilders and owners of large trading schooners. which provided the main
source of transportation between Barbados and the other Caribbean islands.
Some of them married into prominent Barbados families. Ida, one of Capt.
Ben's daughters, married a Mr. Bruce Goddard, who owned Goddard enterprises,
with supermarkets, hotels, import-export and shipping businesses throughout
the West Indies. Their son Richard now runs the business empire. A daughter
Betty Lee, married a famous cricket player Atkinson.
Others who went to Barbados were Chandis Barnes and his cousin Robert Barnes
who owned the schooner 'Diamond M. Ruby', built in Barbados, also the
three-master 'Russell M. Zink'. They traded between Barbados and Demarara.
Peter Hassell, a steamship captain, and his wife 'Panna' lived in Belville
district. Herbie Every, captain of the 'Florence M. Douglas; a three-master
schooner built in Holetown Barbados, lived there also. The schooner was lost
in a submarine attack between Trinidad and Barbados during World War II.
Frank Barnes, captain of several schooners, Will and Aubery Leverock,
captains of , among others, 'The Three Sisters', Pennyson and Frank Hassell
(the later was an Anglican Minister) all lived in Barbados.
Pennyson's daughter Winnie married Captain Donny Hassell, who was a
steamship captain. He also owned the two-master schooner 'Horniest' which
had been purchased in Nova Scotia and ran gasoline between Trinidad and
Barbados. He also owned the two-master 'Roseita'. Pennyson owned the large
two-masted schooner the 'Minnie M. Mosher'. He and his wife Aramintha (Minty),
a daughter of old captain Buddy Barnes, lived at Belville, St. Michaels,
Barbados. Although they had nine children, still their home was a haven for
Sabans just the same as Kaliski's in New York. People stayed with them until
they could find work.
Tommy and Johnny Vanterpool owned 'Walmar Lodge', which now belongs to
Cunard and is a hotel.
Edgar Hassell ('Muggie') was Captain of the 'Comrade' a two-masted schooner.
He used to trade between Barbados and British Guyana. He died from a heart
attack on board the 'Comrade'.
Captain David Hassell owned the 'Esther Anita' a two-masted schooner which
was later lost in St. Kitts. Captain Frank Hassell was majority owner of the
two-masted schooner 'Dutch Princess', built in Montserrat. He traded with
her between Trinidad and Barbados, transporting gasoline.
Then there was Captain Austin Simmons, Captain of the 'Peerless' a two-masted
schooner which traded between Barbados and British Guyana and Barbados. She
was lost in a hurricane. He bought from Udalric Hassell the Rhode Island
schooner named the 'Francis W. Smith'. The other two-masted schooner the
'Vivian P. Smith', owned by the same Captain, used to fish off British
Guyana on the snapper banks.
In 1943, the Vice Lt. Governor of Saba proposed Capt. Knight Simmons of
Pentrose, Fontabelle, Barbados as a good Captain to run the mail service
between the Dutch islands.
Captain Udalric Dowling was a captain of the two-masted schooner the 'Rhode
Island' which tan gasoline from Trinidad to Martinique.
Captain Laurie Hassell (seated on railing) who at age 19 was captain of the
schooner "Mona Marie" - 1936.
A son of Capt. Ben Hassell's, namely Captain Laurie Hassell, is still living
at Black Rocks, Barbados. At the age of 19 he was already Captain of the
lovely two-masted schooner the 'Mona-Marie' which was 73 net tons and had a
length of 130 feet. Captain Ben bought her in 1933 for U.S. $5.250,--. She
was sunk by a German submarine between Barbados and Grenada on June 28th,
1942. Nobody was lost and as she was loaded with empty gasoline drums she
drifted into Bequia.
Captain Ben's personal schooner, a beautiful two-master named 'Mary C.
Santos', got lost off St. Croix right next to the wreckage of the other
schooner owned by him, the 'Three Sisters'. A third schooner the 'Rhode
Island' sent to salvage what it could from the other two got stuck on the
bottom and it too was nearly lost.
One of Captain Ben's sons, also named Benjamin Hassell, who lives in Okemos,
Michigan, for years sailed as wireless operator on the Canadian boat the
'Lady Nelson'. He and others remember fondly their youth in Barbados, and
attending 'Harrison College'. The following newspaper articles, one on a
schooner race and the other an obituary complete our story on the Sabans of
former times who made names for themselves on other islands of the West
Indies.
