Berbice () is a region along the Berbice River in

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

, which was between 1627 and 1792 a colony of the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

and between 1792 and 1815 a colony of the Dutch state. After having been ceded to the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...

in the latter year, it was merged with

Demerara-Essequibo The Colony of Demerara-Essequibo was created on 28 April 1812, when the British combined the colonies of Demerara and Essequibo into the colony of Demerara-Essequibo. They were officially ceded to Britain on 13 August 1814. On 20 November 1815, t ...

to form the colony of

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies. It was located on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first known Europeans to encounter Guia ...

in 1831. It became a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

of British Guiana in 1838 till 1958. In 1966, British Guiana gained independence as

and in 1970 it became a republic as the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. After being a hereditary fief in the possession of the Van Peere family, the colony was governed by the

Society of Berbice The Society of Berbice ( Dutch: ''Sociëteit van Berbice'') was founded on 24 October 1720 by the owners of the colony of Berbice currently in Guyana. These owners (Arnold Dix, Pieter Schuurmans, Cornelis van Peere, and brothers Nicolaas and Hendr ...

in the second half of the colonial period, akin to the neighbouring colony of Suriname, which was governed by the

Society of Suriname The Society of Suriname ( Dutch: ''Sociëteit van Suriname'') was a Dutch private company, modelled on the ideas of Jean-Baptiste Colbert and set up on 21 May 1683 to profit from the management and defense of the Dutch Republic's colony of Suri ...

. The capital of Berbice was at Fort Nassau until 1790. In that year, the town of

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

, which grew around Fort Sint Andries, was made the new capital of the colony.

History

Berbice was settled in 1627 by the businessman Abraham van Peere from

Vlissingen Vlissingen (; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an importan ...

, under the suzerainty of the

. Until 1714, the colony remained the personal possession of Van Peere and his descendants. Little is known about the early years of the colony, other than that it succeeded in repelling an English attack in 1665 in the

Second Anglo-Dutch War The Second Anglo-Dutch War, began on 4 March 1665, and concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Breda (1667), Treaty of Breda on 31 July 1667. It was one in a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars, naval wars between Kingdom of England, England and the D ...

. The colony was a family affair who owned all the plantations on the Berbice River, though they did allow a couple of sugar planters to settle on the Canje River. A dispute arose between the Second

, which was founded to succeed the First Dutch West India Company that went bankrupt in 1674, and the Van Peere family, because the family wanted the colony as an immortal loan as agreed with the first Company. Dutch National Archive �
Inventaris van het archief van de Sociëteit van Berbice, (1681) 1720–1795 (1800)
/ref> This was resolved when on 14 September 1678 a charter was signed which established Berbice as a hereditary

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

of the Dutch West India Company, in the possession of the Van Peere family. In November 1712, Berbice was briefly occupied by the French under

Jacques Cassard Jacques Cassard (30 September 1679 – 1740) was a French naval officer and privateer. Biography Born on 30 September 1679 to a family of merchants of Nantes, Cassard began a career as a sailor at age 14 on the merchantmen owned by his f ...

, as part of the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

. The Van Peere family did not want to pay a ransom to the French to free the colony, and in order to not let the colony cede to the French, the brothers Nicolaas and Hendrik van Hoorn, Arnold Dix, Pieter Schuurmans, and Cornelis van Peere, paid the ransom of ƒ180,000 in cash and ƒ120,000 in sugar and enslaved people on 24 October 1714, thereby acquiring the colony.

Society of Berbice

In 1720, the five owners of the colony founded the

, akin to the

which governed the neighbouring colony, to raise more capital for the colony. The Society was a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

listed on the

Amsterdam Stock Exchange Euronext Amsterdam is a stock exchange based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Formerly known as the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (), it merged on 22 September 2000 with the Brussels Stock Exchange and the Paris Stock Exchange to form Euronext. The ...

. In the years following, Berbice's economic situation improved, consisting of 12 plantations owned by the society, 93 private plantation along the Berbice River, and 20 plantations along the Canje River. In 1733, 25 to 30 houses were built around Fort Nassau to house the craftsmen. The next year an

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...

was added. The village was named New Amsterdam ( Dutch: ''Nieuw Amsterdam''). In 1735, a school master was hired to teach the white children. There were medical doctors stationed in New Amsterdam and Fort Nassau, and six local doctors were assigned to the plantations.

Epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infection ...

s remained a frequent problem in the colony resulting in many deaths. The religion in the colony was

Calvinism Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyteri ...

. In 1735, a minister was installed in Fort Nassau, but after a personal conflict with the governor, he was transferred to Wiruni Creek.

Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

were not allowed to become planters or have a government function. In 1738, two missionaries of the

Moravian Church The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren ( or ), formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the original ...

had been invited by a planter to teach the people he enslaved. They were treated with suspicion, and received several official warnings. In 1757, the missionaries left, and joined the congregation at the village of Pilgerhut founded in 1740 outside the plantation area, where they lived with 300

Arawak The Arawak are a group of Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. The term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to different Indigenous groups, from the Lokono of South America to the Taíno (Island Arawaks), w ...

. The colony had peace and trade treaties with the local Amerindians. This colony did not intervene in wars between the tribes, and no Amerindian was allowed to be taken into slavery unless they were sold by the

Kalina Kalina may refer to: People * Kalina people The Kalina, also known as the Caribs or mainland Caribs and by several other names, are an Indigenous people native to the northern coastal areas of South America. Today, the Kalina live largely in ...

or the Arawak and captured from the interior of the country. Berbice was supposed to be guarded by 60 soldiers in Fort Nassau, and another 20 to 30 soldiers in other locations. Even when not under attack, wars often caused supply problems. In 1670s, the colony had not been supplied for 17 months, and neutrality as during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

could not prevent supply shortages.

Slave Uprising

The relatively sound economic situation of the colony was dealt a severe blow when a slave uprising broke out under the leadership of Coffy in February 1763. The enslaved people captured the south of the colony while the whites, who were severely outnumbered, tried to hang on the north. The uprising went on until well into 1764, with Coffy naming himself governor of Berbice. Only with the use of brute force and military aid by neighbouring colonies and the Netherlands was governor

Wolfert Simon van Hoogenheim Wolfert Simon van Hoogenheim ( – 2 April 1794) was a Dutch States Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Berbice from 1760 to 1764. During his tenure as governor, the Berbice Rebellion took place. Biography Wolfe ...

able to finally suppress the uprising, and restore the colony to Dutch rule. The uprising led to a steep population decline, abandonment and destruction of many plantations, and serious financial problems for the Society. Fort Nassau had been set on fire to prevent it falling into enemy hands. In 1785 the village was abandoned in favour of Fort Sint Andries, situated more downstream, at the confluence of the Canje River. The new village was again named

, and is still known by that name in contemporary Guyana.

Capture by Britain and subsequent merging into British Guiana

On 27 February 1781, British forces occupied Berbice and neighbouring

Demerara Demerara (; , ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state from 1792 unti ...

and Essequibo as part of the

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on t ...

, because 34 out of 93 plantations in Berbice were under British ownership. In January 1782, the colonies were recaptured by the French, who were allied with the Dutch, and who subsequently restored the colonies to Dutch rule with the

Treaty of Paris of 1783 A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

. The colony was on 22 April 1796 again captured by Britain, however this time without a fight. A deal was struck with the colony: all laws and customs could remain, and the citizens were equal to British citizens. Any government official who swore loyalty to the

British crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

could remain in function. Abraham van Batenburg decided to remain governor. Many plantation owners from

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

settled in the colony, doubling the slave population. The British now remained in possession of the colony until 27 March 1802, when Berbice was restored to the

Batavian Republic The Batavian Republic (; ) was the Succession of states, successor state to the Dutch Republic, Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795 after the Batavian Revolution and ended on 5 June 1806, with the acce ...

under the terms of the

Treaty of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France, the Spanish Empire, and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it set t ...

. In 1803, there was a

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, ...

of soldiers who complained about the rations. They occupied Fort Sint Andries, and raised the

Union Jack The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...

with a piece of meat on top. The remaining soldiers aided by Suriname and the Amerindians put down the revolt, and executed five soldiers. In September 1803 the British occupied the territory again, this time for good, and once again without a fight. Abraham van Batenburg, who had been exiled to Europe in 1803, returned for his second term as governor. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, the colony was formally ceded to the United Kingdom, and with the ratification of this treaty by the Netherlands on 20 November 1815, all Dutch legal claims to the colony were rescinded. The plantations and the enslaved people of the Society of Berbice remained under their ownership, but they had already made a decision to sell their possessions in 1795, and they closed their offices in 1821. In 1812, the colonies of

and Essequibo had been merged into the colony of

. As part of the reforms of the newly acquired colonies on the South American mainland, the British merged Berbice with

on 21 July 1831, forming the new

crown colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony governed by Kingdom of England, England, and then Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain or the United Kingdom within the English overseas possessions, English and later British Empire. There was usua ...

, now

. In 1838, Berbice was made one of the three counties of Guiana, the other two being Demerara and Essequibo.Regions of Guyana
at Statoids.com. Updated 20 June 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2013. In 1958, the county was abolished when Guiana was subdivided into districts.

Legacy

Historical Berbice was split in 1958 to make new Guyanese administrative regions and the name is preserved in the regions of

East Berbice-Corentyne East Berbice-Corentyne (Region 6) is one of ten regions in Guyana covering the whole of the east of the country. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the north, the Nickerie District and Sipaliwini District of Suriname to the east, Brazil to the sou ...

, Mahaica-Berbice, and

Upper Demerara-Berbice Upper Demerara-Berbice (Region 10) is a region of Guyana, bordering the regions of Essequibo Islands-West Demerara, Demerara-Mahaica and Mahaica-Berbice to the north, the region of East Berbice-Corentyne to the east, and the regions of Potaro-S ...

Berbice Creole Dutch Berbice Creole Dutch (also known as Berbice Dutch) is a now extinct Dutch creole language, once spoken in Berbice, a region along the Berbice River in Guyana. It had a lexicon largely based on Dutch and Eastern Ijo varieties from southern Nig ...

, a Dutch creole language based on the lexicon and grammar of the West African language Ijo, was spoken until well into the 20th century. In 2005, the last known speaker died. The language was declared extinct in 2010.

Administration

Dutch era

Commander of Berbice

* Matthijs Bergenaar (1666–1671) * Cornelis Marinus (1671–1683) * Gideon Bourse (1683–1684) * Lucas Coudrie (1684–1687) * Matthijs de Feer (1687–1712) * Steven de Waterman (1712–1714) * Anthony Tierens (1714–1733)

Governors of Berbice

* Bernhardt Waterman (1733–1740) * Jan Andries Lossner (1740–1749) * Jan Frederik Colier (1749–1755) * Hendrik Jan van Rijswijck (1755–1759) *

(1760–1764) * Johan Heijlinger (1765–1767) * Stephen Hendrik de la Sabloniere (1768–1773) * Johan Christoffel de Winter (1773–1774) * Isaac Kaecks (1774–1777) * Peter Hendrik Koppiers (first term) (1778–27 February 1781) * Robert Kingston (27 February 1781 – 1782) * Louis Antoine Dazemard de Lusignan (1782) * Armand Guy Simon de Coëtnempren, Count of Kersaint (1782) * Georges Manganon de la Perrière (1783–1784) * Peter Hendrik Koppiers (second term) (1784–1789) * Abraham Jacob van Imbijze van Batenburg (first term, acting until 1794) (1789–1796) * J. C. W. Herlin and G. Kobus (acting) (27 March 1802 – September 1803)

British era

Lieutenant Governor of Berbice

* Abraham Jacob van Imbijze van Batenburg (1796–1802) * Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Nicholson (1803–1804) * Abraham Jacob van Imbijze van Batenburg (second term) (June 1804 – 1805) * Brigadier-General James Montgomerie (1805–1806) * Henry William Bentinck (1806–1807) * Brigadier-General Robert Nicholson (1807–1808) * Major-General Samuel Dalrymple (1808–1809) * Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Ross (1808–1809) * Henry William Bentinck (1809–1810) * Major-General Samuel Dalrymple (1810) * Henry William Bentinck (1810–1812) * Major-General Hugh Lyle Carmichael (1812–1813) * Colonel Edward Codd (1813) * Major-General John Murray (1813–1815) * Henry William Bentinck (1814–1815) * Colonel Edward Codd (1815) * Henry William Bentinck (1815–1820) * Major-General John Murray (1815–1824) *

Henry Beard Henry Nichols Beard (born June 7, 1945) is an American humorist, one of the founders of the magazine '' National Lampoon'' and the author of several best-selling books. Life and career Beard, a great-grandson of 14th Vice President John C. B ...

(1821–21 July 1831)

Notable people

Cheddi Jagan Cheddi Berret Jagan ( ; 22 March 1918 – 6 March 1997) was a Guyanese politician and dentist who was first elected Chief Minister in 1953 and later Premier of British Guiana from 1961 to 1964. He later served as President of Guyana from 19 ...

(1918–1997), ''

Father of the Nation The Father of the Nation is an honorific title given to a person considered the driving force behind the establishment of a country, state, or nation. Pater Patriae was a Roman honorific meaning the "Father of the Fatherland", bestowed by th ...

'' and former

President of Guyana The president of Guyana is the head of state and the head of government of Guyana, as well as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Republic, according to the Constitution of Guyana. The president is also the chancellor of the Orde ...

Notes

References

* * * * * * *

External links

Map of the Colonies of Suriname and Berbice
{{Authority control Regions of South America States and territories established in 1627 States and territories disestablished in 1831