The following is taken from the book “A History of Antigua” by Brian Dyde (with permission from Barbara Arrindell who holds the copyright.) Pages 142-145.
“The lease of Barbuda, granted in 1685 to Christopher Codrington, had been renewed in favour of his son by Queen Anne in June 1705 for ninety-nine years: a period during which it remained an important and valuable part of the Codrington family inheritance. In 1710 it passed from the second Christopher Codrington to his nephew, who before his death in 1738 became Sir William Codrington, first baronet of Dodington. His son, the second baronet and also named William, held the lease until 1792, when it passed to his nephew Christopher a man who later assumed the additional surname of Bethell, and later still also joined the baronetage as Sir Christopher Bethell-Codrington.
“They were all absentee proprietors, preferring to reside in comfort and luxury in England while leaving their West Indian estates, including Barbuda, in the hands of attorneys. Various members of the family visited Barbuda on Occasion; one in 1746 causing so much trouble among the slaves that one of their number committed suicide, another was murdered, and two ended up being burned alive ‘before the Castle Gate’ for having carried out the murder. The first Sir William Codrington, who had spent part of his youth in the West Indies, may have lived on the island for a while in the early years of the eighteenth century as he later wrote ‘I design to end my days there’. He never did, although it was probably he who began work on a house on The Highlands, about three miles away from the ‘castle’. Known thereafter as Highland House, it was too remote and inconvenient ever to be anything other than a country retreat, and had been abandoned by the early 1800s.
“The ‘castle’ A Private Governmency itself near the lagoon, which was rebuilt and enlarged in the 1720s, consisted of a stone tower ‘with several smaller erections attached to it, occupying one corner of an extensive parallelogram, formed by high walls.’ Until a separate residence was provided for him it housed the manager or supervisor, and when Highland House was not in use it also provided rough and ready accommodation for any of the Codringtons, their friends or attorneys visiting the island. The island’s slaves also lived close to the castle, where they created the beginnings of the village of Codrington. They were more fortunate than their fellows on the Codrington estates in Antigua, as no attempt was ever made to introduce the plantation system, and their work was not confined to the constant round of planting and reaping sugar-cane.
“I hope and doubt not but that Barbuda will raise Yams Cassada & Peases etc. for breadkind enough to serve all my white Servants in Antigua’, wrote the first Sir William Codrington in 1721, ‘and Corn yams & Pease enough to serve all my [slaves].’ The enclosed provision grounds which were laid out to the east of the settlement were gradually extended to cover several hundred acres, and employed a majority of the slaves. The others were employed in animal farming, hunting the feral livestock, fishing, tanning, burning lime and in all the other occupations needed by a self-sustaining community. Their numbers increased steadily and by largely natural means throughout the eighteenth century, rising from a handful in 1700 to 150 by mid-century, and over 300 by 1804. The island’s livestock rose over the same period an even more impressive fashion. In 1720 Barbuda supported about 300 sheep, 200 cattle, fifty horses, twenty pigs and a dozen goats.
“Sixty years later it was estimated there were 8000 sheep, 2000 goats, 600 horses and 300 deer, and in 1805 the manager reported there were over 20 000 sheep and so many feral pigs and deer that they were beginning to become a nuisance. In addition to supplying the Codrington estates in Antigua with all the working animals, fresh meat, fish, ground provisions, leather, lime and firewood they needed, excess produce and working animals were also sold to other proprietors. The naval and military forces also constituted a steady market for cattle and sheep. ‘The great Fleet and Army we have in these seas’, one of the overseers informed the second Sir William Codrington in July 1780, ‘must render your Island of Barbuda a most valuable property exclusive of the Advantage by Wrecks.’
“His reference to this particular advantage was one that Codrington hardly needed to be reminded of, the ships which ran aground on the island having over the years earned his family a fortune. With the ‘right of wreck’ written into their lease guaranteeing a major share of the value of anything saved from destruction, salvage operations offered a rich reward – especially if those who actually did the salving, with no option but to risk life and limb, were entitled to no share at all. This of course had not gone unnoticed in Antigua, where all the salvage claims were dealt with, and where in 1777 the Governor complained ‘No white man is allowed to settle in Barbuda, but servants to Sir William Codrington; nor is any person permitted to go there without leave first obtained from Sir William’s Attorney.’ A year later he was even more upset, informing London that it was impossible to operate the legal system where a ‘Wanton Arbitrary Salvage is established’, and asking for Barbuda to be brought under the legislative and judicial authority of Antigua.
“Although the Secretary of State of the day refused to interfere it was enough to alert Codrington to the danger of losing the right when the lease came up for renewal. In January 1790, long before the due date, his nephew and heir Christopher Codrington was sent to Antigua to see if the new Governor, Thomas Shirley, could be persuaded to endorse an application for an early renewal. After a great deal of prevarication Shirley announced in November that ‘he did not find himself inclineable to renew, lest it should give offence to Government’, and the younger Codrington returned to England empty handed.”