Barbados and Leeward Islands, financial administration papers

Manuscript correspondence and other papers relating to the financial administration of Barbados and the Leeward Islands, 1669-1682, mostly concerned with the auditing of the accounts for the farm of the 4½% duty collected during the years 1670-77. The correspondents include: two farmers of the 4½% duty, Sir Charles Wheler and Colonel John Strode; [William Blathwayt], Auditor General of H.M. revenues in America; [Henry Guy], Secretary to the Treasury; and the governors of the Leeward Islands and Barbados.

Barbados was in British possession from its initial settlement in 1627, until its independence in 1966. The main export of the island was sugar, which was grown on plantations worked by slave labour.The Leeward islands are an arc of West Indian islands which include the Virgin Islands, Antiguilla, Saint-martin, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Barbuda, Monserrat and Guadeloupe.A farm was the system of leasing out the rights of collecting and retaining taxes in a certain district.

Access to the items in the collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the controlled environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Access to archive collections may be restricted under the Freedom of Information Act. Please contact the University Archivist for details.

Bought from Percy Dobell and Son in 1952.

Collection level description.

Compiled by Sarah Aitchison as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.

This manuscript was part of the collection of Sir Thomas Phillips, 1st Baronet (1792-1872), as MS 10058. Further details are given in a list filed with the manuscript.

W. A. Shaw (ed), Calendar of Treasury Books , 1672-1675 (1909).