Bermuda seems to have been divided between loyalists and those who supported the Rev., though the island remained in the hand of the British. This from Bermuda History website:
1775. June. Governor George Bruere of Bermuda lost his eldest son John, who was killed fighting as a Lieutenant in the British Army at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
1775. August 14. To the great outrage of Bermuda Governor George James Bruere, himself a former British Army Lieutenant Colonel, a party of armed Bermudians led by Colonel Henry Tucker, having previously plotted to do so illegally, furtively approached under cover of darkness, overpowered a single militia guard and scaled the high walls of the Powder Magazine in St. George's. The air vent that capped the magazine was quietly pried away and a man lowered by rope into the magazine where he was able to unseat the door from its hinges being careful not to cause a spark and set off the dry gunpowder stored within.
They then proceeded to steal nearly all the island's British Army entire supply of 100 barrels of gunpowder from Powder Magazine. They rolled the gunpowder down the hill to the shores of Tobacco Bay where a pre-arranged group of locally-made cedar dinghies were present to carry the precious cargo out beyond the reef to the waiting American sloops. The Charleston, SC committee of safety had sent the schooners "Lady Catherine", "Charlestown" and "Savannah Packet". They had arrived secretly by night and had stayed clear of the reefs, also out of reach of British boats based in Bermuda then in Castle Harbour. The American ships, led by the "Lady Catherine" with 40 crew and Captain George Ord as its master, reached Charleston safely and deposited the powder with Captain John Cowper of North Carolina, Colonel Henry Tucker's agent in Charleston. The powder was later used to good effect at Fort Moultrie. The daring robbery later became known as Bermuda's 1775 Gunpowder Plot. As a result, the Continental Gongress embargo was then (briefly) lifted.
1775. August 14. After the Pennsylvania committee of safety engaged the sloop "Lady Catherine" Capt George Ord master, with 40 men as delegation to Bermuda to trade powder of St George's for exemption from the embargo, they made away with Henry Tucker's (of Somerset) 8 (1/2) barrells of powder. He credited the powder to Capt John Cowper, of North Carolina, Henry's Tucker's agent in America.
1775. August 15. By dawn an alarm was raised that the magazine had been raided and a Bermuda Pilot boat was dispatched to chase down the American sloop, the ships of the British Navy being too slow on the water to catch her. The Pilot boat eventually caught up to the sloop but being vastly outgunned by the American it turned around and headed back to Bermuda. However, the pilot boat skipper and crew identified the sloop as the Lady Catherine of Virginia.
On shore, the British militia scoured the island looking for the gunpowder thieves. The Governor posted a reward of 100 pounds sterling for any one who would testify against the gunpowder thieves. Despite the size then of this reward, there is no record of anyone willing to give evidence against Colonel Henry Tucker, who had arranged the theft of the gunpowder with his men. It was probably due to the huge influence of that family at that time, both in Bermuda and America. (Two of the Colonel's forefathers had been Governors of Bermuda). The Governor was furious and reported his anger to the King back in England. Later that day, a British Army Captain of militia found and burnt a Bermuda sloop being fitted out for an overseas journey by one of the US sympathizers.
It transpired that Colonel Tucker was in the process of having built at a shipyard at Mangrove Bay in Somerset for that purpose. Tempers flared among other local residents also sympathetic to the cause. A Royal Navy sloop boarding party also sent to investigate was armed with fixed bayonets.
The increasing number of rebellious Bermudians initially kept the militia and naval party at bay. The next day, this infamous "Gunpowder Plot" created a sensation in Bermuda where those loyal to the Crown were outraged at the treason of certain Bermudians. However, the friendliness shown by the USA towards Bermudians did not last forever. British Regular Army troops were brought in to prevent another such plot.
1775. August 20. Britain's Royal Navy dispatched HMS Scorpion to the island on the instructions of Gage and Admiral Howe, its primary purpose being to remove a number of artillery pieces to prevent the rebels from America returning to seize them.
1775. In Philadelphia, the American Continental Congress announced a trade embargo against all colonies remaining loyal to the Crown. When Bermuda tried to bargain with salt, the American colonies refused and requested gunpowder instead. George Washington himself wrote to Bermuda, saying the cause was just for him to obtain the supply. A copy of his letter is still available in Bermuda for interested locals and visitors. A group of Bermudians became sympathetic to the Revolution.
1775. American invasion of Canada, ultimately unsuccessful.
1775. September 6. General George Washington, Commander in Chief, 13 Colonies of what later became the USA, not knowing that British gunpowder had already been stolen in Bermuda and shipped to America, wrote this letter (see below) to the Inhabitants of Bermuda:
1775. US Congress authorized Mr Edward Stiles, of Pennsylvania and a former Bermudian, to send the brig "Sea Nymph" Sam Stobel master, to Bermuda with cargo (such as lumber, soap, and candles).
1776. May. The sloop "Betsy & Ann", Ben Tucker master, was given permission to exchange 1700 bushels of salt and two puncheons of rum for provisions at Greenwich, Cumberland, NJ.
1776. Summer. St George Tucker, his father and one other purchased the sloop "Dispatch" to smuggle rice, loaded with salt at Turk's Islands in Nov 1776, and proceeded to Virginia and sold the cargo.
1776. Summer. Admiral Lord Howe sent two Royal Navy sloops of war to interrupt Bermuda trade with the rebellious colonists of America, the "Nautilus", Capt John Collins (arrived Jun 19, departed Oct 20 1776), and the "Galatea", Capt Thomas Jordan, (arrived Sep 7 1776).
1776. St George Tucker purchased the sloop "Adelphi" for trade as he had the "Dispatch" above. He apparently chartered the sloop to Norton and Beale, master George Gibbs.
1777 Bridger Goodrich bought a fine Bermuda sloop, a prize of the "Galatea" and refitted her as a privateer. On his initial commission he took 5 prizes of which two were Bermudians which he brought back to Bermuda. His seizure of Bermudian vessels raised a storm of indignation particularly at the Western end of the Island and Henry Tucker of Somerset formed an association to boycott Bridger. The latter took this opposition in his stride and engaged himself to marry Elizabeth Tucker, a kinswoman of Henry; the association's threat took little effect.
1777. Bermuda was invaded briefly by the USA. During the American Revolution, British militia soldiers manned the isolated 17th century battery near Wreck Hill on Somerset Island in Bermuda. The old fort had a strategic position protecting the West End Channel, one of the few passages between the reefs. It was one of the few passages through the dangerous ring of reefs for sailing ships. The soldiers at the fort had the presence of mind to exchange gunfire with two armed brigs that advanced in a threatening manner although they then flew British colors. The brigs, thought to include Bermudian expatriates familiar with local waters, answered with broadsides from their cannon, lowered their Union Jack flags, hoisted the red, white and blue striped ensign of the United States of America and proceeded to invade Bermuda with landing parties. To avoid meeting this much bigger force, the Bermuda based militia men retreated from the battery. The Americans spiked their guns and destroyed the walls of the fort but were forced to retreat themselves when more local soldiers and a Royal Navy detachment responded to the alarm. The Americans escaped on their ships in what became only the second time in the history of Bermuda that it was invaded. It was regarded by military experts in Britain that until something substantial could be done to strengthen Bermuda's defenses, the islands, as a geographically remote British territory in the mid-Atlantic, remained vulnerable to further American and possibly other invasion attempts.
1778-1779. British troops were sent to Bermuda, as the result of the local militia failing to deal with the pro-American sentiment. Some took charge of a condemned vessel "Southampton" apparently against the wishes of the customs officers. The first permanent British Army garrison was established.
1778. St George Tucker sent the "Adonis", Capt Trimingham to Curacao, the ship falling to the French on return.
1778. The British sailing vessel Lord Amberst struck a reef and sank. Much of its glassware was later recovered and is at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.
1779. The Bridger Goodrich fleet of Bermuda privateers maintained such a blockade in Chesapeake Bay that Governor Thomas Jefferson wrote John Jay, President of the Congress "Our trade has never been so distressed since the time of Lord Dunmore."
1779. December 1. "HMS Delaware" and attendant convoy supply ships arrived in Bermuda from America, carrying British Army reinforcements, officers and men of the Royal Garrison Battalion.
1779. December 1. Four warships sent by the US Continental Congress to capture Bermuda arrived, but seeing HMS Delaware and British Army troops patrolling, left quickly, without putting their plan into action.
1780. When an American named Pinkham arrived in Bermuda, there was a big revival in the business of whaling. Bermudians had tried whaling in the past but in a small and localized way. He taught Bermudians how to cut blubber with spades, thus avoiding waste. For more than 50 years, it was one of the colony's most important industries.
1780. July 27. In the annals of the Massachusetts Historical Society there is a record of a treasonous, co-operative accord between Bermudian men of high status and the American military. An invasion of Bermuda was discussed with the Honourable Timothy Pickering, Jr, of the American Board of War by a Captain B. Joel of Bermuda. He gave the names of those from Bermuda, including a judge and secretary of Government, a doctor and comptroller. He drew up a map showing which buildings in the Bermuda capital housed "Friends of America." Colonel Timothy Pickering, Jr. had headed up the Salem/Essex Militia, with whom he had been associated before the revolution against tea and other taxes began. Pickering's irregulars stopped short of a strategic spot from which they could have annihilated the Redcoats streaming back to Boston from their drubbing at Lexington and Concord, and guerilla losses on that retreat. Capt. B. Joel wrote to Pickering, who by then was Adjutant General and a member of the US government's Board of War: "I trouble you once more to mention a circumstance I did not until now think proper to make public, & which I intended to communicate only to you. In the attempt on Berd. I have likewise a design of seizing between two & three thousand pounds in specie, which the governor always keeps by him. Money arising from the Custom of the Island for which he gives the Collector Bills, on England from the Admiralty, and from his own revenues. With this he pays the Garrison, and furnishes the Barracks, Commissary, & other departments. With the approbation of the (War) Board I could induce a merchant of this City (?Boston), from view of private interest & emolument to furnish a vessel for the attempt." The phrase "in the attempt on Berd." is taken to suggest a possible invasion, either for total control, or only as a singular attack of Bermuda. Capt. Joel also transmits with his letter a list of those sympathetic to whatever he was cooking up with Pickering and augments that roll call with the map showing some of their homes in St. George's. Had Joel's papers been discovered by Bruere or British officials, it would perhaps have resulted the removal of his head, along with those of the treasonous worthies, a number of whom sat on the Governor's Council. The Joel map of St. George's of 1780 with adjacent islands and forts was known to Bermudians and was published by Dr. Henry Wilkinson in his four-volume Bermuda books much later.
1780. September 10. Death of His Excellency, Governor George James Bruere, Lieutenant Colonel in His Majesty's Service, at the age of 59 years. He was put under the floor of St. Peter's Church, in a manner coldly contemptuous of his person and his office, probably resulting from the Anglo-American War of 1775-1783. Bruere did not make it through the end of that conflict, which was resolved with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. He had arrived in Bermuda with his wife and nine children on the Prince of Wales in August 1764, and remained in office for the next sixteen years, until his untimely demise, probably from the scourge of yellow fever. One daughter, Frances, married into the Tucker family, descendants of the former Governor Daniel Tucker (1616-19). Among his good works, Bruere spoke against the evil of slavery, years before it came to the fore in the London Parliament. He took a keen interest in agriculture, which he thought was a neglected economic arena, and it that regard he and his wife bought 60 acres to the north of the Town of St. George to grow grapes with the intention of producing a very fine Madeira." He became ill in July 1780, probably due to stress after the locals stole his gunpowder and gave it to the Americans, and died two months later, said by the great Bermuda historian, Dr. Henry Wilkinson, to be "the victim in the eyes of his family of five years of incessant strain and foul play", a situation brought on by the machinations of the locals in their dealings with the rebels in what became the United States of America three years after his death. Because he died of fever he was buried under St. Peter's Church, St. George's. Bruere, a former British Army Lieutenant Colonel who lost a son also in the army fighting the Americans, was outraged when he discovered what had happened and put up a reward for the capture of the Bermudians responsible but to no avail. Bruere was Governor from 1764 until his death. Of all Bermuda's governors since 1612, his term of office was the longest. He had a difficult time during the American Revolutionary War and is thought to have died of stress caused by the interplay of Bermudians and Continental rebels, as well as the yellow fever. His portrait hangs in the Bermuda National Trust's Tucker House museum in the heart of St. George's.
1780. September. During the USA's War of Independence, American prisoners-of-war confined in the prison (much later, the Post Office) in St. George's, were the first to suffer from what became a terrible Bermuda epidemic. It spread quickly throughout Bermuda. Because of a shortage of food, resistance to the disease was low.
1780. Late Governor George Bruere was succeeded as Governor of Bermuda by his son, also George Bruere (1744–1786), who as a lieutenant in the 18th Regiment of Dragoons, Royal Hussars, (with his brother John who died there) had been wounded at Bunker Hill, and who in 1777 had married Martha Louisa Fatio, then aged fourteen. The younger Bruere was Lieutenant Governor of the Bermudas from 1780 to 1781.
1781. 40 acres of cotton were found growing in Tucker's Town, which led directly to the British government encouraging the planting of cotton as a commercial crop in 1788.
1781. December 16. An American loyalist, William Browne born in Massachusetts 27th Feb 1737 but who had fallen foul of rebel bigotry and fled to England, where he was called on by Lord North from his (he said) 'profoundest retreat' , took over as Bermuda's Governor. He had been a friend of John Adams who thought him a solid judicious character, which turned out to be correct as on arriving to take up office, a lesser man would have thought his task insurmountable. The Islands had a serious lack of food, especially bread and prices were exorbitantly high. The towns were crowded with Loyalists and rents had risen to unprecedented levels. Both smallpox and typhus were present and unchecked in their course. His official residence was in such a state of disrepair it struck him with horror. Enemy prisoners where everywhere taking notes on everything and the danger of attack was greater than ever before. Browne set about organizing island affairs appointing other Loyalists to key positions, one from Virginia as attorney general another from Massachusetts as chief justice, he reinstated the local militia officers and made whaling license free. He took numerous measures and initiatives that went down well with the islanders. He in fact turned out to be a model governor and the islanders had quickly taken to someone who had suffered so much for his loyalty to the Crown. He was able to see that the likelihood of America becoming independent meant this enchanting, tranquil, beautiful isle of pink sand would make it the 'Gibraltar of the west' and imperative for British commerce, so he built up the island's small garrison. Independence was also pretty obvious to the Loyalists and more and more of them arrived and collected at the east end of the island, but were dispersing to other colonies almost as soon as they had arrived. At the end of the war when Loyalists were being evacuated from New York he had them re-provisioned before continuing their journeys. With peace declared, Bermuda was quick to restart trade with the USA and he pressed for it to become a free port, for such he appointed another Loyalist from Connecticut as comptroller. Browne's summing up at the end of his governorship in 1788 was "Bermuda is divided on domestic business but is united in it's loyalty to His Majesty."
1780s. The Bermuda fitted dinghy started racing. Teams of black sailors who were slaves competed against each other for their master's honor, prize money and often a turtle dinner.
1782. May 9. At sea, late in the US War of Independence, the masthead lookout of the Continental frigate Deane saw a strange sail on the horizon. The vessel with the raked-back masts to leeward was a Bermudian privateer, Regulator. Only fast runners, privateers, and warships cruised the waters off the Carolinas. She was caught on a lee shore with nowhere to run and her sixteen six-pound cannon no match for the frigate's twenty-eight twelve-pounders. Trapped and out-gunned, Captain George Kidd struck his colours and Regulator fell prize to the United States navy. The men of the Deane were amazed to find that 70 of the 75-man crew on the Regulator were black slaves. Kidd and his four officers were the only white men on board. A further surprise occurred at the vice admiralty court trial of the Regulator when, breaking with precedent, the Massachusetts justices offered the slaves among the crew their freedom rather than condemn them, as forfeited chattel, to be sold at auction. To a man, the black Bermudians declined the offer and asked instead to be sent to their island home as prisoners of war on the next flag-of-truce. Rather than embrace the freedom offered to them by this new republic, they chose to return to Bermuda and slavery.
1783. Captain Andrew Durnford, Royal Engineers, wrote his "Bermuda Defence Report" of that year: "To the unequal distribution of that carbonate of lime in solution . . . I attribute, not only the caverns and sandflaws, but the pinnacle . . . The most remarkable groups are at Tobacco Bay, St. George's Island, and at the North Rock."
1783. HMS Cerberus, 5th Rate 32 gun ship, apparently launched in 1779, struck rocks in Castle Harbour and sank. (Note, on January 10, 1777 an American shore battery drove away HMS Cerberus, it is not known if it was the same one). Her commander was Sir Jacob Wheate — a Royal Navy captain. Where she went down is now a dive site also known as the Musket Ball Wreck. It is not known whether Wheate was aboard when she sank and survived, or was not aboard at the time. He is believed to have died later that year, from yellow fever and was buried underneath St. Peter's Church (a corpse believed to be his, from a coffin plate found by it, was discovered in August 2008 during excavations).
1783. September 3. Treaty of Paris signed at Versailles ended the War between Britain and the USA which had been raging for almost nine years, during which time Bermuda was threatened with possible starvation, due to a potential blockade of British ports. The defeat at Yorktown caused a change in the British government. Prime Minister Lord North and the Tory party were ousted, and the Whigs, under Rockingham, assumed power. This new government opened negotiations with the American commissioners in Paris. The American had eight main goals, four of which were considered to be essential to any peace settlement, and the other four to be favorable additions. The four essential terms included 1) Independence from Great Britain and removal of all British troops from United States territory; 2) Settlement of all boundaries; 3) Canadian territory to revert to those boundaries before the Quebec Act; and 4) American rights to fish in the Grand Banks and use of Canadian shores to dry and cure the catch. (The optional terms included Britain ceding all of Canada to the United States, British payment for damage caused by British military action, a formal apology by Parliament admitting that Britain was wrong to have caused the war, and allowing American ships and merchants to have the same rights and privileges of commerce as their British counterparts within the British Empire.) By November 1782, the British and American commissioners had reached agreement and signed preliminary terms of peace. However, under the terms of the Franco-American alliance, this peace treaty could not go into effect until Britain and France reach agreement. In turn, France had an additional alliance with Spain, so no Anglo-French treaty could go into effect until Britain and Spain also reach agreement. Unfortunately, Spain's nominal contribution to the war was counterbalanced by the most ambitious territorial demand - the return of Gibraltar by Great Britain. The French proposed that Gibraltar be returned to Spain, that Great Britain be compensated by awarding her several French islands in the Caribbean, and that Spain cede control of Santa Domingo to France. The war-weary British expressed interest in this plan. In September 1782, Spain had mounted an expedition, attempting to retake Gibraltar. Negotiations were frozen as all eyes turned expectantly to view the result. It was a humiliating failure, which, together with the French naval defeat in the Caribbean, reinvigorated the British and hardened their negotiating position. Spain and France were now forced to be more accommodating at the negotiating table. The British put forth a proposal in which they would retain Gibraltar, but Spain would be bought off by awarding her East and West Florida. The Spanish were also reluctant to accept the Mississippi River as the western border of the United States, having their own claims to the territory between the Mississippi and the Appalachian Mountains. (Spain had gained control of Louisiana after the Seven Years War.) France, on the verge of bankruptcy, pressured Spain to accept this settlement and thus end the war. Finally, on January 20, 1783, all parties reached agreement and an armistice was declared. A change of British government and minor modifications to the French and Spanish treaties, as well as Anglo-Dutch negotiations, delayed the final ratification of the Treaty of Paris until September 3, but on that day the War for American Independence officially concluded. Treaties were duly signed between Britain and the French, Spanish and Dutch allies of the Americans and some swapping of countries took place, with the Bahamas, Grenada and Montserrat, all islands, being returned to the English: as it had not been captured during the War, Bermuda remained a British territory, as it had not thrown in its lot with the rebels on the continent. The treaty terms also meant Britain lost forever all its American east coast ports.
1783. After the Treaty of Paris ended the American War of Independence with Great Britain the national geography of North America was re-written in British eyes. From the Royal Navy came the new order. Operations off and in Bermuda came under the "River St. Lawrence and Coast of North America and West Indies" station. The loss of most of the American colonies in the American Revolution left Bermuda as the only British port between Halifax and the West Indies: an ideal location for a Royal Navy dockyard.
1783. The forts built in Bermuda by the British Army were intended to protect the islands against a hostile takeover from the United States, and they performed their job admirably, even if a shot was never fired in anger.
1784. In Bermuda, a slave named Quashi was convicted of murdering his master John McNeill and was hanged on Gibbet Island.
1784. Construction, in the then-emerging town of Hamilton, of the Customs House, oldest surviving building in the city and now referred to as the Old Town Hall. From 1815 to 1817 it was used for meetings of the Legislature and from 1875 to 1968 it housed the city's fire engines.
1784. January 17. The beginning of a Bermuda newspaper. In the town of St. George, Joseph Stockdale arrived from England to edit, print and publish The Bermuda Gazette. He was the King's Printer in Bermuda. He also delivered mail along with the newspaper as a public service. This successful mail system continued intermittently until an official postal system was established on March 6, 1812.
1784. On March 1, in one of its first editions, the Bermuda Gazette reported snow fell in Bermuda on the night before.
1784. Postal service in Bermuda was started by Stockdale in the town of St. George. He placed a letter box outside his office on Printer's Alley.
1784. Nathanial Butterfield was first involved in a general merchandise business in goods ranging from cedar slabs to port wine.
1784. The Bermuda Marine Assurance Company issued its first policy to cover a shipment of cargo from Bermuda to Philadelphia (but went out of business by 1811). As the trade between Bermuda and North America expanded, British insurance companies were encouraged to appoint and support general agents in Bermuda.
1785. Nathanial Butterfield of Bermuda sold the hull of the 118 ton Bermuda-built brig Adventure to Daniel Astwood, Senior for £890. Both men were members of a syndicate that owned a number of smaller sloops.
1785. October 29. Twenty one gentlemen of Bermuda including four members of the House of Assembly signed a document the purpose of which was to create Pembroke Town as the new capital and trading centre of Bermuda.
1787-88. Because Bermudians did not confine their fishing, hunting for turtles and whaling to home waters, they went for cod off the Newfoundland Banks with 34 sloops of 30-60 tons, manned by 8-10 men and a Newfoundlander pilot, Newfoundland complained to London. Bermudians were forbidden to further violate the terms of the Treaty of Paris, 1763. Bermuda's Governor Henry Hamilton had to ensure this was obeyed.
1787. Some eighteen months after a group of concerned private citizens had taken unofficial steps to create a new town on the Pembroke side of Crow Lane, the House of Assembly heard about steps to build what was then referred to as Pembroke Town, partly as the result of an agreement with Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, then one of the largest land owners in Pembroke with her 48 acres,
1788. Birth of Bermudian slave Mary Prince at Brackish Pond, on a farm owned by Charles Myners. Her mother was a household slave and her father was a slave in the shipbuilder's yard at Crow Lane. Her story is both the first-hand account of slavery in Bermuda and the first ever compiled by a woman. She was sent to the Caribbean to work in the Turks Islands, then taken to London by new master John Wood, tried to escape, came under the protection of the London-based Anti Slavery Society and her story became famous.
1788. The Royal Engineers arrived in Bermuda from Britain to begin the refortification of the islands.
1788. Major Andrew Durnford was one of the officers who arrived from England. He re-built Paget Fort.
1788. Lieutenant Thomas Hurd RN, team leader and Lieutenant Evans began their vitally important work of charting the whole of Bermuda, a process not completed until 1797. Their priority was to survey the islands and to determine Bermuda's suitability for a naval port or dockyard. They measured the sea depths at thousands of locations using a plumb line to map the seabed. They also meticulously recorded the position of the edges of the reefs. Among unique records is the earliest detailed record of North Rock, the northernmost point of Bermuda, and the chart contained a proposal for the building of a lighthouse and gun battery on the platform of reefs. It also had a vignette of the six main pinnacles, of which only one is now extant. During the project Lieutenant Hurd lived in the Stiles building off St George’s Town Square with his wife. The couple’s son, Samuel Proudfoot Hurd, was born in Bermuda and later served at the Battle of Waterloo. Hurd and Evans were the first persons to establish the correct position of Bermuda with great accuracy using the stars and the planets and worked with pilots Jemmy Darrell and Jacob Pitcarn to complete the survey. They also discovered during this process that the longitude for St George’s previously been measured was wrong. Lt. Hurd spent almost a decade in Bermuda waters charting the extensive reefs and plotting the channels through them, including the only major one for large ships, off the east end of St. George's Island. Hurd and Evans also identified the site of a naval facility at Grassy Bay. Their work set new standards for such charts. After leaving Bermuda in 1797, Lieutenant Hurd, who had already been promoted to commander, was made Hydrographer for the Royal Navy in 1808 and served in this top role until he died in England in 1823. Francis Beaufort, who invented the wind force scale for indicating wind velocity for shipping, succeeded him in that office.
1789. Beginning of the French Revolution, which was felt in Bermuda.
1788. October 27. William Browne (a British Loyalist born in Massachusetts, USA), left Bermuda never to return, although he was technically still Governor of Bermuda more than a year later.
1788. October 29. "Hair Buyer" Henry Hamilton, after arrival in Bermuda two days earlier, became acting or Lieutenant Governor, later as Governor. He had been appointed on February 26, 1787 by King George III of Britain as Lieutenant Governor of Bermuda (or Somers Isles) in America, and Commander in Chief of Forts King's Castle, Fort Hamilton, Fort Popple and Fort Paget He was then 53 years old. His commission had authorized him to act as full Governor in case of death or absence of Governor in Chief and Captain General William Browne (a British Loyalist born in Massachusetts, USA), who left Bermuda on October 27, 1788, never to return, although he was technically still Governor of Bermuda more than a year later. . . .
1775. August 20. Britain's Royal Navy dispatched HMS Scorpion to the island on the instructions of Gage and Admiral Howe, its primary purpose being to remove a number of artillery pieces to prevent the rebels from America returning to seize them.
1775. In Philadelphia, the American Continental Congress announced a trade embargo against all colonies remaining loyal to the Crown. When Bermuda tried to bargain with salt, the American colonies refused and requested gunpowder instead. George Washington himself wrote to Bermuda, saying the cause was just for him to obtain the supply. A copy of his letter is still available in Bermuda for interested locals and visitors. A group of Bermudians became sympathetic to the Revolution.
1775. American invasion of Canada, ultimately unsuccessful.
1775. September 6. General George Washington, Commander in Chief, 13 Colonies of what later became the USA, not knowing that British gunpowder had already been stolen in Bermuda and shipped to America, wrote this letter (see below) to the Inhabitants of Bermuda:
1775. US Congress authorized Mr Edward Stiles, of Pennsylvania and a former Bermudian, to send the brig "Sea Nymph" Sam Stobel master, to Bermuda with cargo (such as lumber, soap, and candles).
1776. May. The sloop "Betsy & Ann", Ben Tucker master, was given permission to exchange 1700 bushels of salt and two puncheons of rum for provisions at Greenwich, Cumberland, NJ.
1776. Summer. St George Tucker, his father and one other purchased the sloop "Dispatch" to smuggle rice, loaded with salt at Turk's Islands in Nov 1776, and proceeded to Virginia and sold the cargo.
1776. Summer. Admiral Lord Howe sent two Royal Navy sloops of war to interrupt Bermuda trade with the rebellious colonists of America, the "Nautilus", Capt John Collins (arrived Jun 19, departed Oct 20 1776), and the "Galatea", Capt Thomas Jordan, (arrived Sep 7 1776).
1776. St George Tucker purchased the sloop "Adelphi" for trade as he had the "Dispatch" above. He apparently chartered the sloop to Norton and Beale, master George Gibbs.
1777 Bridger Goodrich bought a fine Bermuda sloop, a prize of the "Galatea" and refitted her as a privateer. On his initial commission he took 5 prizes of which two were Bermudians which he brought back to Bermuda. His seizure of Bermudian vessels raised a storm of indignation particularly at the Western end of the Island and Henry Tucker of Somerset formed an association to boycott Bridger. The latter took this opposition in his stride and engaged himself to marry Elizabeth Tucker, a kinswoman of Henry; the association's threat took little effect.
1777. Bermuda was invaded briefly by the USA. During the American Revolution, British militia soldiers manned the isolated 17th century battery near Wreck Hill on Somerset Island in Bermuda. The old fort had a strategic position protecting the West End Channel, one of the few passages between the reefs. It was one of the few passages through the dangerous ring of reefs for sailing ships. The soldiers at the fort had the presence of mind to exchange gunfire with two armed brigs that advanced in a threatening manner although they then flew British colors. The brigs, thought to include Bermudian expatriates familiar with local waters, answered with broadsides from their cannon, lowered their Union Jack flags, hoisted the red, white and blue striped ensign of the United States of America and proceeded to invade Bermuda with landing parties. To avoid meeting this much bigger force, the Bermuda based militia men retreated from the battery. The Americans spiked their guns and destroyed the walls of the fort but were forced to retreat themselves when more local soldiers and a Royal Navy detachment responded to the alarm. The Americans escaped on their ships in what became only the second time in the history of Bermuda that it was invaded. It was regarded by military experts in Britain that until something substantial could be done to strengthen Bermuda's defenses, the islands, as a geographically remote British territory in the mid-Atlantic, remained vulnerable to further American and possibly other invasion attempts.
1778-1779. British troops were sent to Bermuda, as the result of the local militia failing to deal with the pro-American sentiment. Some took charge of a condemned vessel "Southampton" apparently against the wishes of the customs officers. The first permanent British Army garrison was established.
1778. St George Tucker sent the "Adonis", Capt Trimingham to Curacao, the ship falling to the French on return.
1778. The British sailing vessel Lord Amberst struck a reef and sank. Much of its glassware was later recovered and is at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.
1779. The Bridger Goodrich fleet of Bermuda privateers maintained such a blockade in Chesapeake Bay that Governor Thomas Jefferson wrote John Jay, President of the Congress "Our trade has never been so distressed since the time of Lord Dunmore."
1779. December 1. "HMS Delaware" and attendant convoy supply ships arrived in Bermuda from America, carrying British Army reinforcements, officers and men of the Royal Garrison Battalion.
1779. December 1. Four warships sent by the US Continental Congress to capture Bermuda arrived, but seeing HMS Delaware and British Army troops patrolling, left quickly, without putting their plan into action.
1780. When an American named Pinkham arrived in Bermuda, there was a big revival in the business of whaling. Bermudians had tried whaling in the past but in a small and localized way. He taught Bermudians how to cut blubber with spades, thus avoiding waste. For more than 50 years, it was one of the colony's most important industries.
1780. July 27. In the annals of the Massachusetts Historical Society there is a record of a treasonous, co-operative accord between Bermudian men of high status and the American military. An invasion of Bermuda was discussed with the Honourable Timothy Pickering, Jr, of the American Board of War by a Captain B. Joel of Bermuda. He gave the names of those from Bermuda, including a judge and secretary of Government, a doctor and comptroller. He drew up a map showing which buildings in the Bermuda capital housed "Friends of America." Colonel Timothy Pickering, Jr. had headed up the Salem/Essex Militia, with whom he had been associated before the revolution against tea and other taxes began. Pickering's irregulars stopped short of a strategic spot from which they could have annihilated the Redcoats streaming back to Boston from their drubbing at Lexington and Concord, and guerilla losses on that retreat. Capt. B. Joel wrote to Pickering, who by then was Adjutant General and a member of the US government's Board of War: "I trouble you once more to mention a circumstance I did not until now think proper to make public, & which I intended to communicate only to you. In the attempt on Berd. I have likewise a design of seizing between two & three thousand pounds in specie, which the governor always keeps by him. Money arising from the Custom of the Island for which he gives the Collector Bills, on England from the Admiralty, and from his own revenues. With this he pays the Garrison, and furnishes the Barracks, Commissary, & other departments. With the approbation of the (War) Board I could induce a merchant of this City (?Boston), from view of private interest & emolument to furnish a vessel for the attempt." The phrase "in the attempt on Berd." is taken to suggest a possible invasion, either for total control, or only as a singular attack of Bermuda. Capt. Joel also transmits with his letter a list of those sympathetic to whatever he was cooking up with Pickering and augments that roll call with the map showing some of their homes in St. George's. Had Joel's papers been discovered by Bruere or British officials, it would perhaps have resulted the removal of his head, along with those of the treasonous worthies, a number of whom sat on the Governor's Council. The Joel map of St. George's of 1780 with adjacent islands and forts was known to Bermudians and was published by Dr. Henry Wilkinson in his four-volume Bermuda books much later.
1780. September 10. Death of His Excellency, Governor George James Bruere, Lieutenant Colonel in His Majesty's Service, at the age of 59 years. He was put under the floor of St. Peter's Church, in a manner coldly contemptuous of his person and his office, probably resulting from the Anglo-American War of 1775-1783. Bruere did not make it through the end of that conflict, which was resolved with the Treaty of Paris in 1783. He had arrived in Bermuda with his wife and nine children on the Prince of Wales in August 1764, and remained in office for the next sixteen years, until his untimely demise, probably from the scourge of yellow fever. One daughter, Frances, married into the Tucker family, descendants of the former Governor Daniel Tucker (1616-19). Among his good works, Bruere spoke against the evil of slavery, years before it came to the fore in the London Parliament. He took a keen interest in agriculture, which he thought was a neglected economic arena, and it that regard he and his wife bought 60 acres to the north of the Town of St. George to grow grapes with the intention of producing a very fine Madeira." He became ill in July 1780, probably due to stress after the locals stole his gunpowder and gave it to the Americans, and died two months later, said by the great Bermuda historian, Dr. Henry Wilkinson, to be "the victim in the eyes of his family of five years of incessant strain and foul play", a situation brought on by the machinations of the locals in their dealings with the rebels in what became the United States of America three years after his death. Because he died of fever he was buried under St. Peter's Church, St. George's. Bruere, a former British Army Lieutenant Colonel who lost a son also in the army fighting the Americans, was outraged when he discovered what had happened and put up a reward for the capture of the Bermudians responsible but to no avail. Bruere was Governor from 1764 until his death. Of all Bermuda's governors since 1612, his term of office was the longest. He had a difficult time during the American Revolutionary War and is thought to have died of stress caused by the interplay of Bermudians and Continental rebels, as well as the yellow fever. His portrait hangs in the Bermuda National Trust's Tucker House museum in the heart of St. George's.
1780. September. During the USA's War of Independence, American prisoners-of-war confined in the prison (much later, the Post Office) in St. George's, were the first to suffer from what became a terrible Bermuda epidemic. It spread quickly throughout Bermuda. Because of a shortage of food, resistance to the disease was low.
1780. Late Governor George Bruere was succeeded as Governor of Bermuda by his son, also George Bruere (1744–1786), who as a lieutenant in the 18th Regiment of Dragoons, Royal Hussars, (with his brother John who died there) had been wounded at Bunker Hill, and who in 1777 had married Martha Louisa Fatio, then aged fourteen. The younger Bruere was Lieutenant Governor of the Bermudas from 1780 to 1781.
1781. 40 acres of cotton were found growing in Tucker's Town, which led directly to the British government encouraging the planting of cotton as a commercial crop in 1788.
1781. December 16. An American loyalist, William Browne born in Massachusetts 27th Feb 1737 but who had fallen foul of rebel bigotry and fled to England, where he was called on by Lord North from his (he said) 'profoundest retreat' , took over as Bermuda's Governor. He had been a friend of John Adams who thought him a solid judicious character, which turned out to be correct as on arriving to take up office, a lesser man would have thought his task insurmountable. The Islands had a serious lack of food, especially bread and prices were exorbitantly high. The towns were crowded with Loyalists and rents had risen to unprecedented levels. Both smallpox and typhus were present and unchecked in their course. His official residence was in such a state of disrepair it struck him with horror. Enemy prisoners where everywhere taking notes on everything and the danger of attack was greater than ever before. Browne set about organizing island affairs appointing other Loyalists to key positions, one from Virginia as attorney general another from Massachusetts as chief justice, he reinstated the local militia officers and made whaling license free. He took numerous measures and initiatives that went down well with the islanders. He in fact turned out to be a model governor and the islanders had quickly taken to someone who had suffered so much for his loyalty to the Crown. He was able to see that the likelihood of America becoming independent meant this enchanting, tranquil, beautiful isle of pink sand would make it the 'Gibraltar of the west' and imperative for British commerce, so he built up the island's small garrison. Independence was also pretty obvious to the Loyalists and more and more of them arrived and collected at the east end of the island, but were dispersing to other colonies almost as soon as they had arrived. At the end of the war when Loyalists were being evacuated from New York he had them re-provisioned before continuing their journeys. With peace declared, Bermuda was quick to restart trade with the USA and he pressed for it to become a free port, for such he appointed another Loyalist from Connecticut as comptroller. Browne's summing up at the end of his governorship in 1788 was "Bermuda is divided on domestic business but is united in it's loyalty to His Majesty."
1780s. The Bermuda fitted dinghy started racing. Teams of black sailors who were slaves competed against each other for their master's honor, prize money and often a turtle dinner.
1782. May 9. At sea, late in the US War of Independence, the masthead lookout of the Continental frigate Deane saw a strange sail on the horizon. The vessel with the raked-back masts to leeward was a Bermudian privateer, Regulator. Only fast runners, privateers, and warships cruised the waters off the Carolinas. She was caught on a lee shore with nowhere to run and her sixteen six-pound cannon no match for the frigate's twenty-eight twelve-pounders. Trapped and out-gunned, Captain George Kidd struck his colours and Regulator fell prize to the United States navy. The men of the Deane were amazed to find that 70 of the 75-man crew on the Regulator were black slaves. Kidd and his four officers were the only white men on board. A further surprise occurred at the vice admiralty court trial of the Regulator when, breaking with precedent, the Massachusetts justices offered the slaves among the crew their freedom rather than condemn them, as forfeited chattel, to be sold at auction. To a man, the black Bermudians declined the offer and asked instead to be sent to their island home as prisoners of war on the next flag-of-truce. Rather than embrace the freedom offered to them by this new republic, they chose to return to Bermuda and slavery.
1783. Captain Andrew Durnford, Royal Engineers, wrote his "Bermuda Defence Report" of that year: "To the unequal distribution of that carbonate of lime in solution . . . I attribute, not only the caverns and sandflaws, but the pinnacle . . . The most remarkable groups are at Tobacco Bay, St. George's Island, and at the North Rock."
1783. HMS Cerberus, 5th Rate 32 gun ship, apparently launched in 1779, struck rocks in Castle Harbour and sank. (Note, on January 10, 1777 an American shore battery drove away HMS Cerberus, it is not known if it was the same one). Her commander was Sir Jacob Wheate — a Royal Navy captain. Where she went down is now a dive site also known as the Musket Ball Wreck. It is not known whether Wheate was aboard when she sank and survived, or was not aboard at the time. He is believed to have died later that year, from yellow fever and was buried underneath St. Peter's Church (a corpse believed to be his, from a coffin plate found by it, was discovered in August 2008 during excavations).
1783. September 3. Treaty of Paris signed at Versailles ended the War between Britain and the USA which had been raging for almost nine years, during which time Bermuda was threatened with possible starvation, due to a potential blockade of British ports. The defeat at Yorktown caused a change in the British government. Prime Minister Lord North and the Tory party were ousted, and the Whigs, under Rockingham, assumed power. This new government opened negotiations with the American commissioners in Paris. The American had eight main goals, four of which were considered to be essential to any peace settlement, and the other four to be favorable additions. The four essential terms included 1) Independence from Great Britain and removal of all British troops from United States territory; 2) Settlement of all boundaries; 3) Canadian territory to revert to those boundaries before the Quebec Act; and 4) American rights to fish in the Grand Banks and use of Canadian shores to dry and cure the catch. (The optional terms included Britain ceding all of Canada to the United States, British payment for damage caused by British military action, a formal apology by Parliament admitting that Britain was wrong to have caused the war, and allowing American ships and merchants to have the same rights and privileges of commerce as their British counterparts within the British Empire.) By November 1782, the British and American commissioners had reached agreement and signed preliminary terms of peace. However, under the terms of the Franco-American alliance, this peace treaty could not go into effect until Britain and France reach agreement. In turn, France had an additional alliance with Spain, so no Anglo-French treaty could go into effect until Britain and Spain also reach agreement. Unfortunately, Spain's nominal contribution to the war was counterbalanced by the most ambitious territorial demand - the return of Gibraltar by Great Britain. The French proposed that Gibraltar be returned to Spain, that Great Britain be compensated by awarding her several French islands in the Caribbean, and that Spain cede control of Santa Domingo to France. The war-weary British expressed interest in this plan. In September 1782, Spain had mounted an expedition, attempting to retake Gibraltar. Negotiations were frozen as all eyes turned expectantly to view the result. It was a humiliating failure, which, together with the French naval defeat in the Caribbean, reinvigorated the British and hardened their negotiating position. Spain and France were now forced to be more accommodating at the negotiating table. The British put forth a proposal in which they would retain Gibraltar, but Spain would be bought off by awarding her East and West Florida. The Spanish were also reluctant to accept the Mississippi River as the western border of the United States, having their own claims to the territory between the Mississippi and the Appalachian Mountains. (Spain had gained control of Louisiana after the Seven Years War.) France, on the verge of bankruptcy, pressured Spain to accept this settlement and thus end the war. Finally, on January 20, 1783, all parties reached agreement and an armistice was declared. A change of British government and minor modifications to the French and Spanish treaties, as well as Anglo-Dutch negotiations, delayed the final ratification of the Treaty of Paris until September 3, but on that day the War for American Independence officially concluded. Treaties were duly signed between Britain and the French, Spanish and Dutch allies of the Americans and some swapping of countries took place, with the Bahamas, Grenada and Montserrat, all islands, being returned to the English: as it had not been captured during the War, Bermuda remained a British territory, as it had not thrown in its lot with the rebels on the continent. The treaty terms also meant Britain lost forever all its American east coast ports.
1783. After the Treaty of Paris ended the American War of Independence with Great Britain the national geography of North America was re-written in British eyes. From the Royal Navy came the new order. Operations off and in Bermuda came under the "River St. Lawrence and Coast of North America and West Indies" station. The loss of most of the American colonies in the American Revolution left Bermuda as the only British port between Halifax and the West Indies: an ideal location for a Royal Navy dockyard.
1783. The forts built in Bermuda by the British Army were intended to protect the islands against a hostile takeover from the United States, and they performed their job admirably, even if a shot was never fired in anger.
1784. In Bermuda, a slave named Quashi was convicted of murdering his master John McNeill and was hanged on Gibbet Island.
1784. Construction, in the then-emerging town of Hamilton, of the Customs House, oldest surviving building in the city and now referred to as the Old Town Hall. From 1815 to 1817 it was used for meetings of the Legislature and from 1875 to 1968 it housed the city's fire engines.
1784. January 17. The beginning of a Bermuda newspaper. In the town of St. George, Joseph Stockdale arrived from England to edit, print and publish The Bermuda Gazette. He was the King's Printer in Bermuda. He also delivered mail along with the newspaper as a public service. This successful mail system continued intermittently until an official postal system was established on March 6, 1812.
1784. On March 1, in one of its first editions, the Bermuda Gazette reported snow fell in Bermuda on the night before.
1784. Postal service in Bermuda was started by Stockdale in the town of St. George. He placed a letter box outside his office on Printer's Alley.
1784. Nathanial Butterfield was first involved in a general merchandise business in goods ranging from cedar slabs to port wine.
1784. The Bermuda Marine Assurance Company issued its first policy to cover a shipment of cargo from Bermuda to Philadelphia (but went out of business by 1811). As the trade between Bermuda and North America expanded, British insurance companies were encouraged to appoint and support general agents in Bermuda.
1785. Nathanial Butterfield of Bermuda sold the hull of the 118 ton Bermuda-built brig Adventure to Daniel Astwood, Senior for £890. Both men were members of a syndicate that owned a number of smaller sloops.
1785. October 29. Twenty one gentlemen of Bermuda including four members of the House of Assembly signed a document the purpose of which was to create Pembroke Town as the new capital and trading centre of Bermuda.
1787-88. Because Bermudians did not confine their fishing, hunting for turtles and whaling to home waters, they went for cod off the Newfoundland Banks with 34 sloops of 30-60 tons, manned by 8-10 men and a Newfoundlander pilot, Newfoundland complained to London. Bermudians were forbidden to further violate the terms of the Treaty of Paris, 1763. Bermuda's Governor Henry Hamilton had to ensure this was obeyed.
1787. Some eighteen months after a group of concerned private citizens had taken unofficial steps to create a new town on the Pembroke side of Crow Lane, the House of Assembly heard about steps to build what was then referred to as Pembroke Town, partly as the result of an agreement with Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, then one of the largest land owners in Pembroke with her 48 acres,
1788. Birth of Bermudian slave Mary Prince at Brackish Pond, on a farm owned by Charles Myners. Her mother was a household slave and her father was a slave in the shipbuilder's yard at Crow Lane. Her story is both the first-hand account of slavery in Bermuda and the first ever compiled by a woman. She was sent to the Caribbean to work in the Turks Islands, then taken to London by new master John Wood, tried to escape, came under the protection of the London-based Anti Slavery Society and her story became famous.
1788. The Royal Engineers arrived in Bermuda from Britain to begin the refortification of the islands.
1788. Major Andrew Durnford was one of the officers who arrived from England. He re-built Paget Fort.
1788. Lieutenant Thomas Hurd RN, team leader and Lieutenant Evans began their vitally important work of charting the whole of Bermuda, a process not completed until 1797. Their priority was to survey the islands and to determine Bermuda's suitability for a naval port or dockyard. They measured the sea depths at thousands of locations using a plumb line to map the seabed. They also meticulously recorded the position of the edges of the reefs. Among unique records is the earliest detailed record of North Rock, the northernmost point of Bermuda, and the chart contained a proposal for the building of a lighthouse and gun battery on the platform of reefs. It also had a vignette of the six main pinnacles, of which only one is now extant. During the project Lieutenant Hurd lived in the Stiles building off St George’s Town Square with his wife. The couple’s son, Samuel Proudfoot Hurd, was born in Bermuda and later served at the Battle of Waterloo. Hurd and Evans were the first persons to establish the correct position of Bermuda with great accuracy using the stars and the planets and worked with pilots Jemmy Darrell and Jacob Pitcarn to complete the survey. They also discovered during this process that the longitude for St George’s previously been measured was wrong. Lt. Hurd spent almost a decade in Bermuda waters charting the extensive reefs and plotting the channels through them, including the only major one for large ships, off the east end of St. George's Island. Hurd and Evans also identified the site of a naval facility at Grassy Bay. Their work set new standards for such charts. After leaving Bermuda in 1797, Lieutenant Hurd, who had already been promoted to commander, was made Hydrographer for the Royal Navy in 1808 and served in this top role until he died in England in 1823. Francis Beaufort, who invented the wind force scale for indicating wind velocity for shipping, succeeded him in that office.
1789. Beginning of the French Revolution, which was felt in Bermuda.
1788. October 27. William Browne (a British Loyalist born in Massachusetts, USA), left Bermuda never to return, although he was technically still Governor of Bermuda more than a year later.
1788. October 29. "Hair Buyer" Henry Hamilton, after arrival in Bermuda two days earlier, became acting or Lieutenant Governor, later as Governor. He had been appointed on February 26, 1787 by King George III of Britain as Lieutenant Governor of Bermuda (or Somers Isles) in America, and Commander in Chief of Forts King's Castle, Fort Hamilton, Fort Popple and Fort Paget He was then 53 years old. His commission had authorized him to act as full Governor in case of death or absence of Governor in Chief and Captain General William Browne (a British Loyalist born in Massachusetts, USA), who left Bermuda on October 27, 1788, never to return, although he was technically still Governor of Bermuda more than a year later. . . .
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