John Tinker (1700–1758) was an early Colonial official who served the Royal African Company on the Gold Coast, was an Agent for the

South Sea Company The South Sea Company (officially: The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in Ja ...

in Portobello, and was Royal Governor of the Bahama Islands from 1741 to 1758.

Early life

John Tinker was born and baptised on 30 July 1700 to parents Jeremiah and Hannah at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster. His grandfather was Captain John Tinker, Master Attendant of the King's Yard at Deptford who commanded the ''Coverdine'' during the reign of Charles II.

Career

In 1722 John served as governor of the

Cape Coast Castle Cape Coast Castle () is one of about forty slave fort, "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast (region), Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or Factory ( ...

, a trading post of the Royal African Company which traded principally in gold and slaves. In 1724 he was joined on the Gold Coast by his brother Jeremiah who was based close by at Whydah and also by Nathaniel Rice (later to be a relative). He remained there until 1726, when both Tinker and Rice returned to England.

Panama

By 1730, Tinker had been appointed Chief of the Panama Factory at Portobello for the

, where he was responsible for organising the import of slaves under the ''

Asiento de Negros The () was a monopoly contract between the Spanish Crown and various merchants for the right to provide enslaved Africans to colonies in the Spanish Americas. The Spanish Empire rarely engaged in the transatlantic slave trade directly from A ...

'' agreement reached at the 1713

Treaty of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaty, peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vac ...

. He was in post throughout the 1730s, although it seems unlikely his family joined him in Panama as his sons were at school in England and his wife Isabella was residing in London. In 1738 it was announced that he was to be the next Governor of the Bahamas so it is likely he had left Portobello before Admiral Vernon captured it, but he was still involved in its affairs, as in 1739, when the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for Business and Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

was considering ways to prevent the Spanish from exporting from their silver mines in Peru and Mexico, both Tinker and his father-in-law Martin Bladen suggested locating a military base at Darien on the Isthmus of Panama. Vernon rejected this idea as the location was too isolated and would need to be garrisoned.

Bahamas

Tinker did not arrive in post until April 1741 and his first priority was strengthening the island's military defences by building Fort Montagu at the entrance to Nassau Harbour, which was accomplished within the first year, and also a small battery nearby which he called Bladen's Battery (named for his son). When funds for fortifications ran low and Bahamians were taxed to raise money, he had difficulties with his Assembly. They were unhappy with the new taxation and stopped his salary and so he dissolved the Assembly. Despite these difficulties and war with Spain and France, privateers in Nassau seized enemy ships and the whole economy shared in prize money from the vessels. In fact, so many Bahamians were involved in privateering that traditional industries like agriculture were neglected. Tinker had found it difficult to eradicate privateering or entice new settlers as the cost of living was high and the currency was in a poor state. Most of the difficulties he encountered he tended to blame on the people he governed, rather than his own ability to govern.

Freemasons

Tinker had joined the Freemasons in London in 1730 and, in 1755, he made the long journey from New Providence to Philadelphia to attend the greatest procession of Masons ever seen in America at the inauguration of a new Lodge. Tinker, along with

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...

and son

William Franklin William Franklin (22 February 1730 – 17 November 1813) was an American-born attorney, soldier, politician, and colonial administrator. He was the acknowledged extra-marital son of Benjamin Franklin. William Franklin was the last colonial G ...

were at the head of a procession of 160 Masons in full regalia through the streets led by a sword bearer and which was accompanied by peals of bells and the firing of cannons from a nearby ship.

Personal life

On 6 February 1727/28 he married Isabella Bladen, the daughter of Martin Bladen a senior commissioner at the Board of Trade and he received a generous marriage settlement. They had two sons, Captain John Bladen Tinker (1728–1767) and Jeremiah Tinker (1730–1795). John Tinker later lived in the Bahamas separately from wife Isabella, who remained in London, and he had a second family in the Bahamas with Sophia Trigge (who later became the wife of Tinker's secretary John Snow). John Tinker died in the Bahamas on 10 July 1758.More Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies by Vere Langford Oliver

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tinker, John British governors of the Bahamas 1758 deaths 1700 births People from Westminster People from New Providence