Rethinking the Rise of Henry Morgan

This coin was produced by the Franklin Mint in a limited mintage of 42,000 pieces. It was issued in 2005 to mark the 350th anniversary of the English conquest of Jamaica.
The design was likely inspired by the image on the engraved plate created by the artist Frederick Hendrik van Hove, a Dutch-born engraver active in England during the late 17th century. Van Hove may have created Morgan’s image as his interpretation since no contemporary portraits of Morgan existed at that time. Van Hove’s line engraving, produced in the 1680s, is held by the National Portrait Gallery in London. This photograph by the author is of a coin in his collection.

Rethinking the Rise of Henry Morgan

Henry Morgan was born in around 1635 in the borderlands between Glamorgan and Monmouthshire in Wales. His father may have been Robert Morgan, a farmer, although this fact is far from certain. Morgan was a common name in Wales during the 1600s.

During Morgan’s early years, the English Civil War was raging. The Glamorgan and Monmouthshire part of Wales was deeply Royalist, staunchly supporting King Charles I. When the king was executed in January 1649 by the Parliamentarians led by Oliver Cromwell, Henry Morgan may have left Wales. He would have been around 14 or 15.

Some say Morgan left for the English colony of Barbados; others say Bermuda. Barbados seems more likely if he arrived as an indentured servant or a young man seeking opportunity. Throughout the Civil War, Barbados remained loyal to the Crown while Bermuda leaned more toward the Parliamentarians. For a young man, Barbados, less established than Bermuda, offered more economic opportunities and a welcoming Welch community.

Barbados, however, was under Parliamentarian threat and a number of young men migrated to other islands in the Caribbean, including western Hispaniola. Although claimed by the Kingdom of Castile, the population of Hispaniola had gravitated toward Santo Domingo in southeastern Hispaniola to avoid pirate attacks, thereby leaving western Hispaniola sparsely populated. There is a likelihood that Morgan was one of these young men.

Western Hispaniola’s population was a mix of French, English, and Dutch castaways or settlers, escaped servants and enslaved people, and religious refugees. They were called boucaniers in French. When Anglicized, boucaniers became buccaneers. Sometimes, they were called flibustiers, the French word for freebooters, essentially a pirate or a privateer. In Spanish, they were often called corsarios.

The term “buccaneer” originally referred to those who hunted wild cattle and pigs and smoked their meat on wooden frames called boucanes. Smoked meat was a staple on ships.

  From time to time, the buccaneers were chased out of western Hispaniola. A number sought refuge on a small island 30 miles off the northwestern coast by the name of Tortuga. Tortuga was not an unknown island. It had been named by Columbus on one of his voyages and claimed by the Kingdom of Castile.

  Between 1492 and 1625, the Kingdom of Castile was unchallenged in its claim for sovereignty in the Caribbean. Beginning in 1635, the French began claiming islands in the Lesser Antilles, Martinique and Guadeloupe being the first two.

  In 1640, Philippe de Longvilliers de Poiney, the governor of St. Kitts, ordered a French engineer, Jean Le Vasseur, to take about a hundred men and build a fort on Tortuga. Le Vasseur chose a rocky bluff overlooking a southeastern harbor facing Hispaniola. Those commanding the guns of the fort, Fort de Rocher, had an unobstructed view of the harbor and its entry.

  Morgan may have gone back and forth between western Hispaniola and Tortuga. Somewhere along the way, he became friends with a number of the buccaneers.

  Morgan was a minor figure then, but ambitious. He and a few friends may have borrowed a ship and sailed off the coast of Central America raiding small settlements and capturing coastal traders. Within a short time, he may have saved enough to purchase a ship of his own.

  In 1653, Jean Le Vasseur was assassinated by two of his lieutenants. Without his iron-fisted leadership, Fort de Rocher fell into decay and so did the harbor town of Basse-Terre.

  Two years after La Vasseur’s assassination, Oliver Cromwell’s fleet, pursuing his “Western Design” to drive the Castilians out of the Caribbean, captured Jamaica.

  Two years after that, 1657, the acting commanding officer of Jamaica, Edward D’Oyley, invited the buccaneers of Tortuga to use the harbor at The Point (Port Royal) in exchange for their protecting the island from Castilian or French invasions.

  During those years, Henry Morgan left no paper trail. He first appeared in historical records in 1664. It is quite possible, however, that he participated in Christopher Myngs’ 1663 attack on the city of Campeche on the Yucatán Peninsula. Myngs, at that time, was the commander of the English Naval Station in Jamaica. His fleet of 13 ships sailed from Port Royal and were joined by four French and three Dutch ships, bringing the total to 20. During the battle, Myngs was wounded and was unable to continue command. Edward Mansvelt, a well-seasoned Dutch buccaneer who was using Port Royal as his base, took over command, secured the victory and returned the fleet to Port Royal. Morgan, who was also using Port Royal as his base at this time, may have been with Myngs and Mansvelt, although not as a leader.

  On the 15th of February 1664, Sir Thomas Modyford, a wealthy planter and politician from Barbados, was appointed governor of Jamaica. He arrived on the 4th of June with between 700 and 1,000 settlers, including their slaves, and a hundred sugar cane planters. Jamaica was transitioning from relying on plunder to sugar cane.

  In late 1665, Governor Modyford commissioned Edward Mansvelt to attack the Dutch island of Curaçao. Mansvclt assembled 15 ships and 500 buccaneers in Bluefields Bay, in western Jamaica.

Mansvelt had befriended Henry Morgan, so when Mansvelt was commissioned to form a fleet to attack Curaçao, he invited the up and coming buccaneer, Henry Morgan, to join. Mansvelt was elected admiral and Henry Morgan was elected vice admiral of the fleet.

  Mansvelt’s fleet made an unsanctioned detour to Cuba. They then marched over 40 miles inland to attack the town of Sancti Spiritus where they routed 200 Castilian horsemen, plundered the town and acquired 300 head of cattle as ransom in exchange for prisoners.

  Modyford was quite upset. He sent Captain William Beeston to persuade the leaders to abandon what they were doing and to focus on the Curaçao mission.

  Despite Beeston’s efforts, the buccaneers would not agree on a mission. Some wanted to return to Jamaica, some wanted to remain with Mansvelt and Morgan, some wanted to join a leader by the name of Gallardo, who was planning to attack the Castilian town of Granada, Nicaragua, and others just wanted to go their separate ways.

  Mansvelt’s forces left Cuba and captured the island of Santa Catalina. He then went back to Jamaica for additional troops and supplies. Morgan stayed in Santa Catalina with a garrison of about a hundred. When Morgan heard that Mansvelt was unsuccessful in Jamaica and had died as he was sailing on to Tortuga, Morgan went back to Jamaica for additional troops and supplies.

  While in Jamaica, Morgan married his uncle Edward’s daughter, Mary Elizabeth, his first cousin. Edward Morgan was the Deputy Governor of Jamaica. Edward Morgan had been leading an expedition to capture the Dutch islands of Sint Eustatius and Saba when he died. His campaign had been ordered by the governor of Jamaica on behalf of the Crown to support the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Morgan’s marriage to the daughter of the late Deputy Governor improved his social status in Jamaica. He was no longer just a privateer.

  In May of 1667, England and Castile entered into the Treaty of Madrid. This treaty did not explicitly recognize England’s possession of Jamaica, although it did help de-escalate hostilities.

  A few months later, England and the Dutch Republic entered into the Treaty of Breda to end the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

  Despite receiving new orders from the Crown to officially end privateering, in March 1668, Modyford issued a commission to Henry Morgan to lead a raid on Puerto Principe, Cuba. Morgan assembled 12 ships and 700 buccaneers and landed in the Gulf of Santa Maria. They marched to the inland town of Puerto del Principe. The town was captured, looted and held for fifteen days until a ransom was paid. Morgan’s men then returned to their ships, but not before slaughtering 700 head of cattle and taking their carcasses for their next expedition.

  A few months later, Modyford issued another commission to Henry Morgan, this time for a raid on Portobello, Panama. Modyford claimed the raid was necessary as a defensive act. Portobello was serving as a major transit point for silver from South America on route to Castile. Morgan assembled nine ships and 460 men. They landed at night and marched inland, bypassing the main defenses. They captured three key forts and seized and looted the city for several weeks, leaving before the Castilians were able to counterattack.

  Morgan’s success at Portobelo marked a turning point in buccaneer warfare — elevating Morgan from a mere privateer to commander of global notoriety. The raid demonstrated the power of English privateers and increased Jamaica’s economic reliance on piracy. This put Modyford at odds with the Crown’s diplomatic efforts, but he justified it as necessary for Jamaica’s survival.

  Modyford was not done and neither was Henry Morgan. The following year, Modyford issued Morgan another commission, this time to attack the Castilian settlements of Maracaibo and Gibraltar in Venezuela. Morgan assembled a fleet of eight ships and 600 men. They entered Lake Maracaibo under the pretense of needing repairs, and they then launched a full-scale assault, capturing, looting and holding both towns for ransom. As his fleet was leaving Lake Maracaibo, they discovered that a Castilian fleet under Admiral Alonso de Campos was blocking the narrow channel that connected the lake to the sea. Trapped and outgunned, Morgan loaded a ship with gunpowder and sailed it directly into the Castilian flagship, blowing it apart. The remaining Castilian ships scattered, and Morgan’s fleet sailed into the sea and safety.

  The Maracaibo/Gibraltar expedition showed Morgan’s ability to improvise and conduct psychological warfare. It cemented his growing reputation as England's most dangerous privateer in the Caribbean.

  Morgan’s victories at Portobello and Maracaibo deepened the crisis between England and Castile, exposing the legal contradictions at the heart of Caribbean warfare. Although England and Castile were not technically at peace; they were not formally at war.

  Thomas Modyford continued to issue privateering commissions, allowing men like Morgan to raid Castilian towns under the guise of legality. Castile viewed these raids as piracy. The blurred line between privateering and piracy pushed Castile to seek a formal resolution that culminated in the Treaty of Madrid (1670).

  In the treaty, Castile officially ceded Jamaica to England. The treaty ended Castilian claims to the island and reduced the threat of Castilian invasion. It formally outlawed privateering, leading to increased efforts to suppress it. Modyford, however, continued to support privateering as it was vital to the Jamaican economy. The tenuous peace with Castile meant that commissions expired, putting an end to privateerings and returning former privateers into pirates, assuming they chose to continue their activities.

  Modyford must have known that this treaty was being negotiated when he issued a commission to Morgan on 22nd of July 1670. But he had no way of knowing that the treaty had been signed earlier in July and would be ratified by Charles on 28th of July, five days after he issued the commission to Morgan. The commission authorized Morgan to launch an expedition, defensive and retaliatory in nature, should Castile attack English interest. The commission did not reference any specific target.

  Morgan was well aware that a treaty was being negotiated and he saw his window of opportunity to be quite limited. He needed to gather his fleet and depart Jamaica before official notice of the treaty’s ratification would arrive.

  He sent word to his buccaneer friends that he was planning a fresh attack on the Spanish Main. He was more interested in rounding up the buccaneers from Tortuga and Hispaniola than he was with green volunteers from Jamaica. Morgan said he was gathering a force large enough to attack a place of real importance, and once the battle was fought and won, there would be fortune for everyone.

  Morgan reached the southern coast of Hispaniola on 24th of October. The buccaneers — English, French, and even some Dutch —had received Morgan’s invitation and were eager to join him. A few more ships  joined and his fleet grew to 37 ships and about 2,000 men, mostly seasoned buccaneers.

  Morgan held a council of war with the ship captains to decide their target. Would it be Cartagena, Panama, or Vera Cruz? Panama was judged the richest prize — the main goal to attack and plunder.

  But first, they had to take Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Nicaragua. Morgan needed guides to take them through the jungle and across the isthmus of Panama to Panama City on the Pacific coast. So on the 16th of December, they sailed from Hispaniola for Santa Catalina. Four days later they arrived.

  The next morning, Morgan sent a canoe under a white flag ordering the governor to surrender the island. The governor responded with a counter demand. Stage a mock battle to save face and you could have the island. By evening, the mock battle raged, heavy artillery along with small-arms. The following morning, Morgan had full control of the island and had his guides.

  Morgan sent four ships and a barque to attack San Lorenzo, the fortress at the mouth of the Chagres River. Four hundred men were selected for the assault and put under the command of Joseph Bradley and Thomas Norman, buccaneers with long careers in the Caribbean and members of Morgan’s inner circle. A few days later, Morgan’s fleet set sail for San Lorenzo and arrived eight days after the fortress had been taken. Both Bradley and Norman had been killed leading the attack.

  Morgan had two guns and four swivels mounted on the five flat-bottomed boats the Castilians had left in the river. Five hundred men were ordered to stay behind at the fortress and another 150 to stay on the ships anchored in the river. 

  On the 18th of January, the journey up the river to Panama City began with five flat-bottomed boats with mounted guns, 32 canoes, and 1,200 men. They carried no food because they expected to find plenty along the way.

  After the second day, the river had dried up so the flat-bottomed boats were abandoned. Morgan’s forces were then divided between those who marched and those who rode in the canoes. They were hungry. They had found no food along the way.

  The Castilians had been watching Morgan’s every move. They had given every plantation along the way time to strip their homes and leave their land baron. As Morgan's force marched on, the lack of food sapped their strength.

  On the eighth day, Morgan decided that, because they were at the highest navigable point in the river, the canoes would be sent back to where the ships were moored, and they would all proceed by foot along the road to Panama City.

  On day nine, they came to a mountain and the South Sea where a galleon and five or six smaller vessels had just sailed from Panama City. They marched down the mountain to a great plain where a large herd of cattle grazed. Some of the buccaneers shot every animal within range; others lit fires. The carcases were hacked apart, and thrown into the flames to cook. The meat barely had time to heat when it was grabbed and devoured.

  Morgan soon sounded stand-to and they were marching again. Toward evening, they came within sight of the roofs and spires of Panama City. There they camped, planning to march in the morning, the tenth day.

  At dawn, Morgan had his officers draw up a battle order. The Castilian had two squadrons of cavalry and four battalions of foot on the plain below, waiting. Behind them were a number of wild bulls, herded along by Indians, Africans and half-breeds.

  Morgan had his men assemble on the rise with a clear view of the enemy. At his word, two hundred French buccaneers, all carrying first-class muskets, marched down the hill. The rest of Morgan’s forces followed.

  When Morgan’s forces reached the plain, the Castilian cavalry attacked, but their horses were hampered by the swamp that lay before them. As they advanced, Morgan’s French buccaneers dropped to one knee and opened fire — one man aiming, the next reloading.

  The Castilian foot soldiers moved up to support their calvary, but they too drew fire. They had planned to drive their wild bulls into the back of Morgan’s lines, but Morgan's rear guard turned, waved flags and fired their muskets. The bulls panicked and stampeded back toward the men who were driving them.

  After two hours of hard fighting, Morgan’s forces had routed the cavalry. Most lay dead or wounded on the battlefield. Their foot soldiers fired one last time before taking flight. Morgan’s forces were too hungry and worn to pursue them. A few Castilians tried hiding in the reeds along a stream. They were shot on sight.

  Several Franciscan friars were taken prisoner. They asked for a hearing before Morgan. He refused and had them led away and shot.

  Within two hours, Panama City had fallen. By noon, Morgan torched a number of houses; by nightfall, the city was aflame. The silver had been taken away by the monks, the paintings and sculpture were consumed by the blaze.

  Panama City had seven monasteries and a convent, a hospital, a cathedral and a parish church. By the next day, the 2,000 houses owned by merchants and the 3,000 houses owned by others, and the stables, had been reduced to ash.

  For three weeks, Morgan’s forces scoured the city and countryside for silverplate and coin. A number of men and women, including slaves, were captured. They were brought back to the city where they were tortured until they revealed where they hid their valuables.

  Ships in the harbour were searched. One ship in particular, a galleon, escaped with the King of Castile’s silver and all the jewels and treasure of the richest merchants of the city.

  After three weeks of plundering by land and sea, Morgan ordered each ship’s captain to find mules to carry the plunder about eight leagues to the Chagres River where the canoes were waiting.

  While the mules were being rounded-up, Morgan sent some of the Castilians to find ransom money for their wives, children, and slaves. A few monks were sent to gather ransom for themselves and for the monks who remained as hostages.

  On the 24th of February, Morgan and his forces left Panama City along with 175 mules, each laden with silver plate and coin. Five or six hundred prisoners — men, women, children and slaves — were brought along.

That day, they traveled only about a league before making camp. Morgan’s prisoners suffered from hunger and thrust. The women and children cried throughout the night. Mothers had nothing to feed their babies. The mothers begged Morgan to let them go, but he showed no compassion.

  Over the next week, they completed the eight-league march to the town of Cruz and made camp.

  On the 15th of March, Morgan and his forces moved out of Cruz with all their plunder and those prisoners whose ransom had not been paid.

  Two days later, Morgan gathered his men to announce that each would be searched for hidden plunder. He chose one man from each ship to search the men from his ship. Morgan and his cronies were also searched — although they had advance warning. There was grumbling, but no one had the courage to step forward to challenge the search.

  On the 19th of March, Morgan and his forces arrived at Fort San Lorenzo at the mouth of the Chagres River. He wasted no time in sharing the plunder with his men, or rather as much of the plunder he was willing to share. Each received no more than 200 pieces of eight. There was grumbling about the payout, but not from Morgan’s inner circle.

  When Morgan heard that the grumbling was spreading, he made ready to sail. He torched the fortress, but not before having the brass cannon taken aboard. Only three or four ships followed him, although they were less prepared to leave. One by one they dropped off to seek supplies. Morgan’s ship arrived in Port Royal alone.

  When Morgan’s ship dropped anchor in Port Royal, there were no cheers, no cannon salutes, no parades, no speeches.

  The few from Jamaica who sailed with Morgan on his expedition to Panama, often met at a local tavern. When the conversation drifted to the plunder, it went something like this:

 “The plunder does not add up. Two hundred pieces of eight to a man? But there were 175 mules to haul it. Just does not add up.”

“Morgan sailed with 2,000 men and 1,200 went into Panama. If all 1,200 survived and each were paid 200 pieces of eight — that would be 240,000 pieces of eight, 240,000 total.”

“Be generous and add another 100,000 for the captain, the officers, and the injured. The total is now 340,000 pieces of eight.”

“The Crown took its royal fifth. Morgan was to get an extra 1% but skip that for a moment so the numbers are easier to work with. If the Crown received 20%, the other 80% should have been divided among us men.”

“If 340,000 is 80%, a 100% must be about 425,000. That is 425,000 pieces of eight. That is what Morgan distributed.”

“Now count the plunder. A mule usually carries 200 to 250 pounds. Again, be generous. Light load the mules with 200 pounds each.”

“If 175 mules carry 200 pounds a mule…. That is 35,000 pounds.”

“Sixteen pieces of eight to a pound. Now 35,000 pounds at 16 pieces of eight a pound comes to 560,000 pieces of eight.”

“But only 425,000 pieces of eight were distributed. What happened to the other 135,000?”

“Yes, that is the question. What happened to the other 135,000 pieces of eight?”

“And that is assuming that all 1200 men were paid, the mules were not heavily loaded, no ransom was paid, and no jewels were kept. Truth be told, it was probably at least double that.”

“Not much to laugh about. At least we made it home. I will make a toast to those who did not!”

“So whoever shorted the men, also cheated the Crown and the Admiralty.”

“And that I will drink to.”

“To the Crown and Admiralty.”

 . . . . .

When word about Morgan’s Panama expedition got back to England, King Charles was not happy. He had been trying to make peace with the Kingdom of Castile and this did not help.

  In early June of 1671, Sir Thomas Lynch arrived in Jamaica with sealed orders from Charles II. Upon unsealing them, Sir Thomas Modyford discovered he was being replace by Lynch and that Lynch had been ordered to place him under arrest for issuing the commission to Henry Morgan. Modyford was taken to London in late 1671 and imprisoned in the Tower of London until early 1675. He was never officially charged nor tried.

  Technically, Henry Morgan’s raid on Panama City did not violate the Treaty of Madrid of 1670. Morgan had sailed from Panama in late March of 1671. King Carlos of Castile did not ratify the treaty until the 19th of May1671, so the treaty did not go into effect until after Morgan and his fleet had left Panama. And this does not take into account the date King Charles actually notified the governor of Jamaica with an official written notice. Written notification of the king’s ratification did not arrive until the 16th of August 1671, well after Lynch had become the governor.

  During Thomas Modyford’s governorship, Port Royal had become the center of English naval and buccaneering operations in the Caribbean. He had transformed Jamaica into the strongest English outpost in the Caribbean. He encouraged privateering as a defensive strategy, despite orders to suppress it. He helped secure England’s control over Jamaica, despite diplomatic risks.

  His tenure as governor of Jamaica marked a pivotal shift, a transition from a pirate haven to a prosperous mercantile center. While Modyford initially sanctions privateering, he later sought to curb piracy to foster legitimate trade. He recognized the economic advantages of large-scale sugar production. He actively promoted the expansion of sugar plantations and the plantation economy, which, in turn, intensified the demand for labor. Under his administration, the importation of enslaved Africans increased markedly, solidifying Port Royal’s role as a pivotal destination in the transatlantic slave trade. His administration laid the foundation for Jamaica’s political and economic expansion.

  By the late 1660s, Port Royal was known as the “wealthiest and wickedest city in the New World,” bustling with merchants, artisans, and privateers.

  Shortly after Sir Thomas Lynch arrived with orders to replace and arrest Modyford, Henry Morgan received formal notice summoning him to London to explain to the king and the Lords of Trade his Panama expedition. He had embarrassed the Crown, although he did not technically violate the Treaty of Madrid of 1670.

  Morgan arrived in England in late 1672 or early 1673. Unlike Modyford, Morgan was treated well even though he was in the gentlemen’s quarters of the Tower of London. He was never arrested nor formally charged. He was limited to London under informal supervision.

  Henry Morgan did the most with his two years in London. He was merely confined to the city and where else would he rather be? London was where the power lay. The courts, the admirals, the financiers, the king’s advisors, were all within reach.

  Morgan can be pictured telling his stories to London’s elite in smoked filled rooms, the stories told themselves. He had sacked Portobello, escaped the Castilian trap at Maracaibo, and burned Panama City to the ground. He was no longer just a man; he was becoming a legend. He was charming and he raised his glass in the right company. So when the time came to appoint someone to the new post of Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, the Crown turned to someone it knew, someone who had moved in courtly circles for the past two years and someone who had filled the royal treasury with Caribbean silver. He was no longer a rogue of the sea, but a man on an upward trajectory. He was Henry Morgan.

  But first, he had to be neutralized — brought into the formal machinery of the empire. In January of 1674, King Charles II knighted Henry Morgan. He was now Sir Henry Morgan, not a buccaneer, but a member of the establishment.

  Later that year, King Charles appointed John Vaughan, 3rd Earl of Carbery, to replace Sir Thomas Lynch as the governor of Jamaica. Vaughan was a court favorite with no love for privateers. Vaughan’s appointment signaled the Crown’s tighter control after the Treaty of Madrid in 1670 and the Panama controversy.

  King Charles then appointed Henry Morgan the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica and President of the Governor’s Council. The appointment of Henry Morgan had lured him into “a golden cage.” He was no longer the leader, giving orders to a 37 ship fleet and 2,000 men. He was the Lieutenant Governor, taking orders from the governor and the Crown. It was a convenient way to place a privateer beneath the governor and under the governor’s and Crown’s supervision. Morgan had too many supporters to just cast him aside.  

  Although John Vaughan and Henry Morgan arrived in Jamaica to assume their new posts at roughly the same time, early 1675, Morgan had a significant head start. He had lived in Jamaica for over a dozen years, cultivating friendships, alliances, and influence, especially among planters, merchants, and the privateering elite. He had brought substantial revenue to the island, married the deputy governor’s daughter and owned three plantations.

  By contrast, Vaughan was a newcomer with a royal commission but little local support. He was stepping into a colony where Morgan carried weight both in the taverns and in the Council chambers. Vaughan also came to Jamaica with orders to stamp out the buccaneer influence, a policy that would put him at odds with Morgan.

  Morgan formally took his seat as president of the Governor’s Council. The Council was Jamaica’s ruling body, composed of elite planters, merchants, and administrators who advised the governor and helped enact colonial policy. Morgan was well-known among planters and former privateers and acted as a stabilizing figure between the colonial elite and those still loyal to the old buccaneering ways.

  Vaughan and Morgan had a tense and complicated relationship, not outright hostile, but clearly not friendly. Their interests diverged sharply. While they managed to work together for a time, Vaughan distrusted Morgan and, over time, worked to limit his influence.

  Finally, in July of 1678, John Vaughan, frustrated by Jamaica's politics, resigned as governor and returned to England. He had struggled with factionalism among the planters and the Council, the ongoing buccaneer influence, especially through Morgan’s presence, weak control over Port Royal, and limited support from the Crown.

  In 1678, De Americaenche Zee-Roovers (Buccaneers of America), by Alexander O. Exquemelin, was published in Amsterdam, the Dutch Republic. Exquemelin had sailed with Morgan as his barber-surgeon. The book, originally in Dutch for a European audience, was soon translated into German, Spanish and English. This 1678 edition, which discussed Henry Morgan’s expedition to Panama in detail, was not widely known in English Jamaica at the time of Vaughan’s resignation.

  Vaughan’s resignation left Jamaica with a lack of formal, consistent leadership for four years. Charles Howard, Earl of Carlisle, was appointed governor and arrived in late 1679, but he served for only six months before returning to England.

  Between 1678 and 1682, with no governor appointed, Morgan, as Lieutenant Governor, was the highest-ranking Royal official in Jamaica. He was President of the Governor’s Council, oversaw administrative matters, and exercised broad discretion in day-to-day affairs and at times, fulfilled some of the duties of the governor.

  He had been given no new orders so Jamaica drifted. He issued no new bold initiatives. Some said that Morgan was lazy; others said he was playing the role of Lieutenant Governor and waiting for orders.

  During these four years, England was absorbed in its own problems. In 1678, Titus Oates fabricated a conspiracy claiming that Catholic agents planned to assassinate King Charles II and place his Catholic brother, James Stuart, Duke of York, on the English throne. The Popish Plot, as it became known, created mass hysteria, leading to anti-Catholic violence, the execution of at least 22 people, and a sweeping crackdown on Catholics. Although the plot was exposed as a fraud, it triggered a political crisis that lasted for years.

  The year after the Popish Plot was fabricated, England became entangled with a political fight over whether James, who was openly Catholic, should be excluded from the line of succession. The debate divided Parliament between two emerging factions, the Whigs, who favored excluding James and limiting royal power, and the Tories, who supported hereditary monarchy and opposed exclusion. The three exclusion bills that were introduced in Parliament between 1679 and 1681, failed when Charles dissolved Parliament and Parliament remained dissolved throughout the remainder of his reign. Without government funding, Charles turned to his cousin, once removed, King Louis XIV of France. Many in England feared that Charles was steering England toward absolutist rule with French support, especially given his secret Treaty of Dover (1670) and his open Catholic sympathies.

  As the king tightened his grip at home, he moved to do the same abroad, imposing control on England’s colony of Jamaica.

  King Charles reappointed Sir Thomas Lynch as governor.. Lynch returned in 1682 with orders to rein in piracy and restore discipline and he wasted no time. In 1683, he suspended Henry Morgan from the Governor’s Council and limited his role in governing. In 1684, he had Morgan arrested. The exact charges were unclear — possibly public drunkenness, encouraging illegal privateering, or defiance of the governor’s order. In any case, Morgan was briefly detained, publicly embarrassed, but never tried.

  So with title, Lieutenant Governor, but no power, Henry Morgan left Spanish Town for his plantation of Llanrumney, about a dozen miles from Spanish Town, a plantation named after his family’s ancestral home in Wales.

  On the 6th of February 1685, King Charles II died. His Catholic brother, James Stuart, Duke of York, was crowned King James II and VII, James II of England and Ireland; James VII of Scotland. England, Ireland and Scotland were in for turbulent times.

  In 1685, Morgan sued the publisher of the English edition of The Buccaneers of America. He claimed that the passage concerning his use of priests and nuns as human shields during the assault on Panama City was libelous. This passage appeared in the 1684 English translation but not in the original 1678 version of the book. The court ruled in Morgan’s favor, and the passage was removed from later printings.

  It should be noted that both the original and the translations portray Morgan as cruel, greedy, and sadistic. Morgan did not challenge this broader portrayal in his English libel action.

  Henry Morgan, the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, died at his plantation on the 25th of August 1688, at the age of 53, He had grown obese and suffered from alcoholism and likely liver disease. Stripped of power, he lived out his final years comfortably on his plantation with his wife, Mary Elizabeth, battling declining health and a damaged reputation. He left no children to carry on his legacy.

  Hender Molesworth, the Governor of Jamaica at the time of Morgan’s death, declared a formal state funeral. The guns of Fort Charles fired a salute, and Morgan was buried with full military honors in the Palisadoes Cemetery, just beyond Fort Rupert, east of Port Royal’s main gates.

  And with 21-gun salute, ordered by the Jamaican Assembly, the age of the buccaneer in Jamaica came to an end.

Epilogue

 On the 7th of June 1692, four years after Henry Morgan’s death, Port Royal was shattered by an earthquake. The ground opened, buildings collapsed, and the sea turned sand and gravel into quicksand. Of a population of 6,500, 2,000 died immediately. Another 2,000 fled across the harbor to the fishing village of Kingston. The remaining 2,500 were left to rebuild what had once been the wealthiest city in the New World.

The earthquake did more than destroy the city — it destroyed the Palisadoes cemetery, which lay beyond the eastern gate past Fort Rupert. Like two-thirds of Port Royal, the cemetery had been built on landfill. When the tidal wave swept through the cemetery, the sand and gravel was sucked out into the harbor, carrying away coffins and tombstones.

  The burial site of Sir Henry Morgan, who rose from being one of the most feared privateers in the Caribbean to Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, was washed into the harbor and lost. It remains there to this day, the final resting place for a man who once led a fleet of 37 ships and 1,200 buccaneers on a raid that left Panama City in ashes.

Martin A. Frey
June 11, 2025