William Sayle
| William Sayle | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 1st Colonial Governor of South Carolina | |
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In office 15 March 1670 – 4 March 1671 |
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| Succeeded by | Joseph West |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1590 England |
| Died | 1675 Bahamas |
| Residence | Bahamas |
| Occupation | Explorer, colonial administrator |
Captain William Sayle (c. 1590–1671) was a prominent Bermudian landholder who was Governor of Bermuda in 1643 and again in 1658. As an Independent in religion and politics, and an adherent of Oliver Cromwell, he was dissatisfied with life in Bermuda, and so founded the company of the Eleutheran Adventurers who became the first settlers of the Bahamas between 1646 and 1648. He later became the first governor of colonial South Carolina from 1670–71.
Bermuda, or the Somers Isles, was settled in 1609 as a result of the wrecking of the Sea Venture, the flagship of the Virginia Company. Although most of the passengers and crew continued to Jamestown, Virginia, the following year on two Bermuda-built ships, the Royal Charter of the company and the boundaries of Virginia were extended to include Bermuda in 1612, when the first governor and sixty colonists joined the three men who had remained behind from the Sea Venture. Bermuda's 21 square miles were subdivided into nine parishes (at first called tribes). The easternmost, St. George's (where St. George's town was established), was designated common or Crown land, but the remainder were further subdivided into shares, each equivalent to a specific share held in the company. The parishes (other than St. George's) were each named for a major shareholder (or adventurer) in the company. Administration was handed to the crown in 1614, and then in 1615 transferred to a spin-off of the Virginia Company called the Somers Isles Company. The Company appointed a governor, who from 1620 oversaw a House of Assembly that differed from the House of Commons in having no property qualification (due to most land in Bermuda being then owned by absentee landlords). As the House of Assembly consequently governed for the benefit of Bermuda's landless men, a Council made-up of prominent local men appointed by the company was introduced as a combination of upper house and cabinet. This was intended to ensure the balance of power remained with the company, rather than the settlers, but with no other group from which to appoint its members, the council quickly became dominated by men from the same prominent local families that filled the Assembly, and political power rested firmly with this emerging local elite and their descendants until the introduction of universal adult suffrage and party politics in the 1960s.
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