John Tinker (governor)

John Tinker 1700-58 was an early Colonial official who served the Royal African Company on the Gold Coast, was an Agent for the South Sea Company in Portobello and was Royal Governor of the Bahama Islands from 1741–58

John Tinker was born and baptised on 30 July 1700 to parents Jeremiah and Hannah at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster. His grandfather was Captain John Tinker, Master Attendant of the King’s Yard at Deptford who commanded ‘The Coverdine’ during the reign of Charles II. In 1722 John went to the Gold Coast to the British trading post of Cape Coast Castle for the Royal African Company, which traded principally in gold and slaves, where he headed up a three-man team to manage the facility. In 1724 he was joined on the Coast by his brother Jeremiah who was based close by at Whydah and also by Nathaniel Rice (later to be a relative). He remained there until 1726 when both Tinker and Rice returned to England.

By 1730 Tinker had been appointed Chief of the Panama Factory at Portobello for the South Sea Company where he was responsible for organising the import of slaves under the Asiento agreement reached at the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. He was in post throughout the 1730s though it seems doubtful his family joined him in Panama as his sons were at school in England and wife Isabella was residing in London. In 1738 it was announced that he was to be the next Governor of the Bahamas so it is likely he had left Portobello before Admiral Vernon captured it but he was still involved in affairs because in 1739, when the Board of Trade was considering ways to prevent the Spanish from exporting from their silver mines in Peru and Mexico, both Tinker and his father-in-law Martin Bladen suggested locating a military base at Darien on the Isthmus of Panama, but Vernon rejected this idea as the location was too isolated and would need to be garrisoned.

Tinker did not arrive in post until April 1741 and his first priority was strengthening the island’s military defences by building Fort Montagu at the entrance to Nassau Harbour, which was accomplished within the first year, and also a small battery nearby which he called Bladen’s Battery (named for his son). When funds for fortifications ran low and Bahamians were taxed to raise money, he had difficulties with his Assembly. They were unhappy with the new taxation and stopped his salary and so he dissolved the Assembly. Despite these difficulties and war with Spain and France, privateers in Nassau seized enemy ships and the whole economy shared in prize money from the vessels. In fact, so many Bahamians were involved in privateering, that traditional industries like agriculture were neglected. Tinker had found it difficult to eradicate privateering or entice new settlers as the cost of living was high and the currency was in a poor state. Most of the difficulties he encountered he tended to blame on the people he governed, rather than his own ability to govern.

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