The College - Don't let your past dictate your future.

"The College". A 16 x 20 acrylic painting by Mark Phillips

I painted this piece from a photo I took in January this year when visiting the College on other business.

There is a darkness to Codrington College that appears to be part of its very foundation. Built by slaves on lands that were probably acquired by murder. No amount of good intentions could remove the shadow from this place.

I am a product of The Lodge School, which along with Codrington College came about as a direct result of the actions of Christopher Codrington. Sitting in history class at Lodge School with Mr. F.A Hoyos, (later Sir Alexander Hoyos), I  learnt of the benevolence of Mr. Codrington. Only years later as an adult did I learn the full story of the Codrington family’s role in the history of Barbados and the West Indies. I do not blame Mr. Hoyos for his omission. I attended Lodge School in 1974 when it was still a Boarding School and both the student body and the staff were still 40-50% Caucasian. Subjects like slavery barely merited a mention.

Bear with me while I give you a more comprehensive story.

Christopher Codrington was born in Barbados in 1668. His father, Colonel Christopher Codrington, was captain-general of the Leeward Islands. As a young man, Codrington was sent to England to be educated. From 1685 he attended Christ Church, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner. In 1694, having fought with distinction at Huy and Namur, he was made a captain of the 1st regiment of foot guards in 1695. After his father’s death in 1698, King William gave him the succession to his father's office of captain-general and commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands.

He died on 7 April 1710, and his body was sent to England and buried in All Souls Chapel. By his will dated 1702 he left £10,000, and £6,000 worth of books to the college, a legacy that sufficed to erect, furnish, and endow a magnificent library, in the middle of which stands his statue done by Sir Henry Cheere.

His two plantations in Barbados, now known as the Society and the College, together with part of the island of Barbuda, he left "to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts for the foundation of a college in Barbados," in which a convenient number of professors and scholars were to be maintained, "all of them to be under the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience," and "obliged to study and practice physick and chirurgery, as well as divinity, that by the apparent usefulness of the former to all mankind they may both endear themselves to the people, and have the better opportunity of doing good to men's souls, while they are taking care of their bodies."

The strict rules that Christopher left were never followed but Codrington College was built between 1714-42 and still stands today.   The painting shows one of the original buildings. To his credit, Codrington directed that a portion of his charitable bequest be used to educate the enslaved population of Barbados, but this was a gesture effectively blocked by the objections of fellow planters.

The plantations were run by managers on behalf of the SPG, and their operational oversight was nominally supervised by a Board of trustees of the Society headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and a committee of Church of England, (Anglican), bishops. The plantations were reliant on the regular supply of new slaves from West Africa.  Due to ill-health, smallpox, dysentery and mistreatment, 4 out of every 10 slaves bought by the plantation in 1740 were reported to have died within three years.

Initially, slaves were branded with the word "Society" on their chests with a hot iron. Historian Milton Meltzer explains that the branding practice throughout the sugar plantations was that “Already branded once by the trader, the slaves were branded a second time with their new owner's initials." On branding at Codrington, historical documents state, “For nearly a decade, Codrington officials tried to reduce escapes by branding all slaves on their chests. In the end, though, the chief deterrent was the lash, plus, at times, an iron collar and a straitjacket.”

Woodville Marshall, emeritus professor of history at the University of the West Indies, said the Church's sins over Codrington were those of omission more than commission. "They had professional planters to run the place," he said. "The Church didn't play an active role, because they were more interested in the receipts." After the plantation was left to the SPG, its slaves were branded on the chest with the word "society", to remind everyone that these were slaves of the Lord. In 1740, 30 years after the Church took over, four out of every 10 slaves bought by the plantation died within three years. "Most people in Barbados are not too troubled by these issues," Prof Marshall said. "It was not so much the SPG that the Church should be apologising for as the activities of the individual parsons who kept plantations and slaves for sheer profit."

The elder Codrington deserves a mention here if we are to understand where the Codrington family wealth was derived from.

Colonel Christopher Codrington (c. 1640 – 1698) was an English plantation owner and colonial administrator who made a great fortune in the West Indies. Born about 1640 on Barbados, Codrington was the son of another Christopher Codrington. His father was a royalist who had arrived in Barbados around 1640, married a sister of James Drax, a leading plantation owner, and acquired an estate in the parish of Saint John. He made a small fortune there, most of which he left to his son when he died in 1656.

In 1663, Codrington and other men of Barbados bought the island of Saint Lucia from native chiefs there. While still in his twenties, he was appointed to the council of Barbados, and then as deputy governor, entrusted with the day-to-day administration in the absence of the Governor. In that capacity, he set about building schools and hospitals, suppressing smuggling, and controlling excessive drinking. Codrington was married to a woman named Gertrude.  His elder son, another Christopher, was born in Barbados in 1668, and then a younger son called John, who was an "imbecile."

In 1669, the elder Codrington was accused of murdering Henry Willoughby, a son of the Governor, Lord Willoughby, during a dispute about Codrington's acquisition of a desirable estate on Barbados called Consetts. (the site of the present College). Willoughby died suddenly with a "violent burning of the stomach", a few hours after eating a meal with Codrington, and although no wrongdoing was ever proved, Codrington never entirely recovered his good name on the island.  He began to trade outside the law and to move his investments away from Barbados.

In 1672, while Willoughby was away on a campaign, Codrington received a report of a rich silver mine on the island of Dominica, which was still in the possession of the Island Caribs and summoned the council of Barbados to ask it to agree that he should seize Dominica "before any other nation should possess the same". He then sent men to negotiate the purchase of the island, and a party to take possession. However, the French Governor General, the Marquis de Baas, promptly had the Englishmen removed from the island and protested that they had broken a treaty with the French of 1660. When Willoughby returned to Barbados Codrington was dismissed from his position and was also removed as commanding officer of a militia regiment.

After leaving the council, between 1674 and 1682 Codrington was elected several times to the Assembly of Barbados and was its Speaker in 1674, 1675, and 1678.

Codrington went on to build up the largest land holdings in Antigua and secured a lease of the whole island of Barbuda from the Crown.  He was appointed as captain-general of the English Leeward Islands, and in 1683 moved his base of operations to Antigua, where he was an important plantation-owner and was influential in reforms to make the island more like Barbados. By 1685, he had founded the settlement of Codrington on Barbuda and went on to build a stronghold there. During the Nine Years' War of 1688 to 1697, he led a series of armed conflicts with the French. As a captain general, Codrington found many ways to line his own pockets and was the target of allegations of corruption when he died in 1698, not long after the Peace of Ryswick.

All his ill-gotten gains were inherited by his elder son, our Christopher Codrington.

To rid ourselves of our shadows -- who we are -- we must step into either total light or total darkness. Goodness and evil. Jeremy P. Johnson

As always, thank you for reading. I appreciate the comments and the kind words of encouragement. Until next time when I will share some more of my work and a little about what makes me tick, please leave a comment.  And, I will really appreciate if you share this post with your friends. To make sure that you don't miss any future posts, Please enter your email address in the subscribe by email box on the right.

Mark Phillips

Artist
Email:- mark@phillipsbajanart.com
Website:-www.phillipsbajanart.com
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