John Yeamans
| Sir John Yeamans, Bt | |
|---|---|
| 3rd Colonial Governor of South Carolina | |
|
In office April 19, 1672 – August 13, 1674 |
|
| Preceded by | Joseph West |
| Succeeded by | Joseph West |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 February 1611 Bristol, England |
| Died | April 1674 Barbados |
| Spouse(s) | Limp Margaret Berringer |
| Occupation | colonial administrator |
Sir John Yeamans, 1st Baronet (1611–1674) was an English colonial administrator described in his day as "a pirate ashore". He was an early leader and governor of the Province of Carolina.
Baptised on 28 February 1611 in Bristol, England, Sir John Yeamans was a younger son of John Yeamans, a brewer of Redcliffe, Bristol who died about 1645, and his wife Blanche Germain. The younger Yeamans was a colonel in the Royalist army during the English Civil War.
In about 1650 Yeamans migrated to Barbados, and within a decade he had become a large landholder there (he had held land in Barbados since 1638) a colonel of the militia, judge of a local court of common pleas, and by July 1660 he was on the council of that colony.
In the deteriorating economic conditions of the 1660s and 1670s many Barbadian planters sought better opportunities. In 1663 a number of planters in Barbados made arrangements with the proprietors of Carolina for establishing a colony at Cape Fear. The proprietors, by the exercise of their influence at court, secured a baronetcy for Yeamans, conferred on him 12 January 1665, and on 11 January 1665 they appointed him governor of their colony, with a jurisdiction extending from Cape Fear to San Mateo.
The region was named Clarendon County. Yeamans was also instructed to explore the coast south of Cape Fear. He sailed with three vessels from Barbados in January 1665, and reached Cape Fear, but sustained heavy loss on the way from rough weather. Accordingly, he soon returned to Barbados, leaving the management of the new settlement to a deputy, Captain Robert Sandford (whose lieutenant was Joseph Woory, Yeamans's nephew). However the colonists abandoned Clarendon by the autumn of 1667.
In 1669 another attempt at colonisation was made. Three ships of settlers were sent to Port Royal Island from the British Isles calling first at Barbados. Instructed by the proprietors to name a governor Yeamans named himself and joined the expedition until it reached Bermuda. In Bermuda he appointed the elderly William Sayle in his place and abruptly returned to Barbados. The expedition continued and successfully founded South Carolina's first permanent English settlement in April 1670.
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