Christopher Codrington (died 1698)

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 and probably the grandson of Robert Codrington, a landed gentleman of good family with an estate at Dodington, Gloucestershire. 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 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 on Barbados in 1668, and then a younger son called John, who was an "imbecile."

In 1669, Codrington was accused of murdering Henry Willoughby, a son of the Governor, Lord Willoughby, in the course of a dispute about Codrington's acquisition of a desirable estate on Barbados called Consetts. 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 , promptly had the Englishmen removed from the island and protested that they had broken a treaty with the French of 1660. Although supported by the Council on Trade and Plantations, when Willoughby returned to Barbados Codrington was dismissed from his position and was also removed as commanding officer of a militia regiment. The exact reasons for his removal are unclear, but on 12 November 1672 Lord Willoughby wrote "My late Deputy Coll: Codrington hath harrassed them to death wth needless improssitions."

...
Wikipedia