Stephen Caulker (died 1810) was a king of the

Banana Islands The Banana Islands are a group of islands that lie off the coast of Yawri Bay, south west of the Freetown Peninsula in the Western Area of Sierra Leone. Three islands make up the Banana Islands: Dublin, Banana Islands, Dublin and Ricketts, Si ...

off the coast of present-day

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

. He had some distant Anglo-Irish ancestry and was mostly Sherbro in ancestry. Caulker was part of a hereditary dynasty that ruled as chiefs of the states of

Bumpe Bumpe is a small town in Bo District in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. As of 2013 it had an estimated population of 16,123. The town is located south-west of Bo. The town is also known as Bompeh, and both names are applied to a local ri ...

and

Shenge Shenge (also spelled Shengge) is a coastal fishing town along the Atlantic Ocean in Moyamba District, Southern Province, Sierra Leone. Shenge is the seat of the Kagboro Chiefdom, part of the third level of administration. The dense coastal ju ...

(Kagboro) in Sierra Leone from 1820 into the late 20th century.

Background

Stephen Caulker was born in the Banana Islands, the son of Charles Caulker and his Bantu wife. His father was a descendant through Skinner Caulker of Thomas Corker (1670-1700), an English agent with the

Royal African Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English trading company established in 1660 by the House of Stuart and City of London merchants to trade along the West African coast. It was overseen by the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II of Eng ...

, and his Bantu wife or concubine, known as Seniora Doll. He conducted slave trading at Sierra Leone. In 1797 Caulker seized the

from King William Cleveland, killing him. He was avenging the murder and beheading of his father Charles Caulker, by Cleveland's father King James Cleveland, who had previously ruled there. The Clevelands were descendants of another British trader. Stephen Caulker and his son Thomas Stephen Caulker established a successful political dynasty, the Bumpe Chiefdom, in mainland Sierra Leone. His son was king from 1810 to 1820, when the Banana Islands were incorporated into the

colony of Sierra Leone The Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone (informally British Sierra Leone) was the British colonial administration in Sierra Leone from 1808 to 1961, part of the British Empire from the Abolitionism in the United Kingdom, abolitionism era un ...

by the British. That year Caulker and his family established the Bumpe Chiefdom (also known as Bompeh) in south-central Sierra Leone. Their territory was concentrated in the northwest region of the Southwest District. Thomas Stephen Caulker was a

paramount chief A paramount chief is the English-language designation for a king or queen or the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a Chiefdom, chief-based system. This term is used occasionally ...

from 1820 to 1832, after which his son Charles Caulker became chief. In 1888 Bompeh was made part of Sierra Leone Protectorate. Caulker descendants ruled as hereditary chiefs until 1984. Other Caulker descendants ruled as paramount chiefs in

(later Kagboro) into the 20th century.Ben M. Cahoon, "Sierra Leone Traditional States"
World Statesmen.org website, accessed 29 April 2014

References

1810 deaths Sierra Leonean people of British descent Year of birth missing

Stephen Stephen or Steven is an English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is w ...

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