Christopher Codrington

Christopher Codrington (1668 – 7 April 1710), was a Barbadian-born British soldier, plantation and slave owner, bibliophile, and colonial governor.

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, and went to school in Enfield under the tutelage of Dr. Wedale. From 1685 he attended Christ Church, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner. He was elected to All Souls as a probationer fellow in 1690. He was an enthusiastic book-collector.

In 1694, while retaining his fellowship, he followed William III of England to Flanders. Having fought with distinction at Huy and Namur, he was made a captain of the 1st regiment of foot guards in 1695.

In the same year, he accompanied the king to Oxford and, in the absence of the public orator, was selected by the University to deliver the university oration. "Mr. Codrington of All Souls," says Edmund Gibson (afterwards Bishop of London), "in a very elegant oration expressed the publick joy of the university to see his majesty." Codrington had by this time acquired the reputation of a wit and scholar, though his fame is rather to be inferred from the dedications addressed to him by Thomas Creech, Dennis, and others, than from documented performances on his part.

In 1698, after the peace of Ryswick, his father seems to have died, and King William gave him the succession to his father's office of captain-general and commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands.

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