View source for William Sayle

{{Short description|Governor of colonial South Carolina (c. 1590–1671)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2010}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = William Sayle
| image               = 
| caption             = 
| order               = [[List of colonial governors of South Carolina|1st Governor of South Carolina]]
| office              = 
| monarch             = {{plainlist|
*[[Charles II of England|Charles II]]
*[[James II & VII]]
}}
| term_start          = 15 March 1670
| term_end            = 4 March 1671
| predecessor         = ''Office Established''
| succeeded           = [[Joseph West (politician)|Joseph West]]
| birth_date          = {{circa}} 1590
| birth_place         = [[Kingdom of England|England]]
| death_date          = 1671 (aged {{circa}} 81)
| death_place         = [[Bahamas]], [[Kingdom of England|England]]
| spouse              = 
| children            = 
| residence           = Bahamas
| alma_mater          = 
| occupation          = Explorer, colonial administrator
| religion            = <!-- Military service -->
| branch              = 
| serviceyears        = 
| rank                = 
| unit                = 
| commands            = 
| battles             = 
| awards              = 
}}
Captain '''William Sayle'''{{Needs IPA|date=March 2024}} ({{c.}} 1590 – 1671) was a prominent English landholder who was [[Governor of Bermuda|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 European settlers of the [[Bahamas]] between 1646 and 1648. He later became the first governor of [[Province of South Carolina|colonial South Carolina]] from 1670 to 1671.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://halseymap.com/flash/gov-detail.asp?polID=64|title=Sayle, William Charleston's Intendants and Mayors Halsey Map Preservation Society of Charleston|website=halseymap.com}}</ref>

==Life in Bermuda==
[[File:Sayle Road Sign Bermuda.jpg|thumb|left|Sayle Road, at its intersection with Verdmont Road, in Smith's Parish, Bermuda]]
[[Bermuda]], or the "Somers Isles", was settled by Europeans in 1609 as a result of the wrecking of the ''[[Sea Venture]]'', the flagship of the [[Virginia Company of London|Virginia Company]]. Although most of the passengers and crew continued to [[Jamestown Colony|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 (at the time, actually the ''lieutenant-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 Parish, Bermuda|St. George's]] (where [[St. George's, Bermuda|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 (finance)|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 of Bermuda|House of Assembly]] that differed from the [[House of Commons of England|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 (government)|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 suffrage|universal adult suffrage]] and [[Political party|party]] politics in the 1960s.

Although Bermuda quickly became a thriving colony, the growth of tobacco as a cash crop that was the basis of the economy under company administration became unprofitable from the 1620s as Virginia became stable and self-sufficient and England established newer and larger colonies, all of which emulated Bermuda's economy, flooding the English market with cheap tobacco. Few shareholders in the company actually settled in Bermuda, and the land was occupied and worked by [[Tenant farmer|tenants]] and by [[indentured servant]]s who repaid the cost of their transport to Bermuda with seven years' labour. The more successful settlers (whether they arrived as shareholders or tenants at their own expense or as indentured servants) increased their landholdings by purchasing shares from adventurers who were finding them ever less profitable. Whereas absentee landowners primarily relied on tobacco exports, residents began to switch to maritime trades, replanting the fields that had been cleared from the forest with [[Bermuda cedar]], which was vital to shipbuilding and more valuable than cash crops like tobacco. They also grew food crops and raised livestock for their own consumption, and exported their excess production aboard their new ships for sale in other colonies. This put them at odds with the company, which only earned profits from the tobacco grown for export. This contest between the settlers and the company would end when the settlers took their complaint to the Crown and the company's Royal Charter was revoked in 1684.

[[File:John Smith 1624 map of Bermuda with Forts 01.jpg|thumb|200px|Captain [[John Smith of Jamestown|John Smith's]] 1624 map of [[Bermuda]], showing contemporary fortifications, including King's Castle.]]
Sayle appears to have settled in Bermuda by about 1630. He owned considerable property in the colony, with 165 shares totalling 220.5 acres in [[Southampton Parish, Bermuda|Southampton]], [[Smith's Parish, Bermuda|Smith's]], and [[Pembroke Parish|Pembroke]] parishes, according to the 1662–1663 survey by [[Richard Norwood]]. Among his possessions was the property where the house in Smith's known as [[Verdmont]] was built about 1710 off Sayle Road.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bnt.bm/verdmont-historic-house-and-garden|title=Verdmont Historic House and Garden|access-date=23 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bmuwgw/verdmont.html|title=Places of Interest – Smith's Parish|access-date=23 September 2016}}</ref> As one of the colony's most prominent men, he served as a military officer in command of King's Castle,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hollis Hallett |first1=A. C. |title=Bermuda under the Somers Isles Company: Civil Records. Volume I. 1612-1669 |page=255 |date=2005 |publisher=A joint publication of Juniperhill Press and Bermuda Maritime Museum Press |location=Bermuda |ISBN=0-921992-14-9 |language=en |quote=1638 Nov 27, 28 Assizes Civil Cases<br>[CR I:177B-179A].<br>Plaintiff Defendant Cause & Decision<br>9. Richard SPITTIE Thomas WELLS Accn debt £18-7-0 stlg.; found for WELLS.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hollis Hallett |first1=A. C. |title=Bermuda under the Somers Isles Company: Civil Records. Volume I. 1612-1669 |page=257 |date=2005 |publisher=A joint publication of Juniperhill Press and Bermuda Maritime Museum Press |location=Bermuda |ISBN=0-921992-14-9 |language=en |quote=1639 Jun 4-7 Assizes<br>[CR I:181A-186A.]<br>Judges:<br>Capt. Thomas CHADOCKE, Governor, Mr. John BALLARD, Sn, Mr. Patrick COPLAND, Minister, Mr. Josias FORSTER, Secretary, Mr. John HALL, Hm, Lt. Richard HARBERT, Dv, Mr. John MILLURE, Sy, Mr. William REYNER, Pm, Capt. William SAYLE, Commander of the King’s Castle, Capt. William SEYMOR, Commander of Southampton Fort, Mr. Richard STAFFORD, Sm, Mr. Nathaniell STOWE, Mr. John TRIMINGHAM, Pg, Mr. Hugh WENTWORTH, Wk, Mr. Daniel WIGHT, Minister, Capt. Roger WOOD, Commander of Paget’s Fort.<br>Grand Inquest:<br>Mr. Samuell BEADLE, Mr. Edward BRACKLEY, Mr. Thomas BURGESS, Mr. John DEVITT, Mr. Richard JENNINGES, Mr. Robert KESTEPHEN, Foreman, Mr. Diamon KNOWLES, Ens. Christopher LEIGH [LEA], Mr. John MILLES, Lt. John PLAYCE, Lt. Robert PULFORD, Mr. John RECORD, Mr. Thomas SPARKES, Mr. John TAYLOR, Nicholas WATH, Mr. Francis WATLINGTON.<br>Jurors for Life and Death:<br>Walter ABBOTT, John AKEHURST, Hugh ATKINSON, Roger AXTON, John BETHELL, Edward CHESHIERE, Thomas COLLINS, Mr. John DAVIS, Foreman, Henry DOYLEY, Thomas HALL, William NELMES, John SMYTH, John WAINWRIGHT.<br>Jurors for Civil Causes:<br>1). Mr. William BAGGERLEY, Foreman, William HEYNES, John KNAPTON, William LINDYE, Henry PENNY, William RAGSDELL, Sgt. William REIGNOLDS, John RYVERS, Alexander SMYTH, Stephen STEPHENSON, Thomas WELLS, John WILLMOTT.<br>2). William BERNARD, Henry FOARD, William GREENEWAY, Thomas HUTCHINS, William JOBSON, William JOHNSTON, Foreman, David MYNGE, Robert POWELL, John PRINCE, John ROBINSON, John SWITHIN, Abraham VINCENT, John YOUNGE.}}</ref> and was at times a member of the council (that combined the roles now performed by the [[Senate of Bermuda|Senate]] and the Cabinet). By this period, the Somers Isles Company had ceased sending new Governors from abroad, and appointed a succession of prominent residents to the position. Sayle was appointed Governor in 1643, but as an [[Independent (religion)|Independent Puritan]], aligned with the Parliamentary cause, the [[Commonwealth of England|Commonwealth]] and then [[Oliver Cromwell]]'s [[The Protectorate|Protectorship]], he was to be at odds with the majority of Bermuda's dominant elite.

==The English Civil War==

In the 1640s, Bermuda was divided by conflict between the [[episcopal polity|episcopal]] [[Church of England]] and Bermuda's revolutionary [[Independent (religion)|Independent Puritans]] and [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]]. This was the same as the conflict between Bermudian [[Cavalier|Royalists]] and [[Roundhead|Parliamentarians]], as the [[English Civil War]] extended into the English colonies. In Bermuda, most of the settlers had already become estranged from the Somers Isles Company as those shareholders who had remained in England had barred those who lived in Bermuda from having any say in the management of the company. This meant that, although most land was by then owned by residents like Sayle, their interests were thwarted in order to ensure maximum profits for the shareholders in England. As most of the shareholders in England sided with Parliament when war broke out, most Bermudians saw their interests as aligned with the Crown's.

As the Crown and the Church of England attempted to assert their authorities, similar conflicts took place in other parts of the English realm leading up to the Civil War and the [[Interregnum (1649–60)|Interregnum]], as well as in English-ruled Ireland (where native Irish Catholics and royalists would be suppressed after the 1649–1653 [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland]], and from where Presbyterian settlers from the [[Kingdom of England]] and the [[Kingdom of Scotland]], resenting the Crown's attempts in the 1630s to bring them under Episcopalian authority, had begun to re-emigrate to North America where they became known as ''Scots-Irish'' or [[Scotch-Irish American|Scotch-Irish]]).

In Bermuda, at least, the Royalist–Episcopal forces held sway. After Parliamentary victory in England in 1646, five of the financiers of Sayle's mission to Eleuthera signed the death warrant of [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]]. However, Bermuda, like Virginia and a handful of other colonies, remained loyal to the Crown. Bermuda was the first to recognise [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] as King following the 1649 execution of his father. Royalists in Bermuda, with control of "the Army" (nine companies of militia infantry and the volunteer artillery that manned the coastal batteries), ousted Captain Thomas Turner, the Company-appointed Governor, in 1649 and elected John Trimingham as their leader. The Commonwealth barred trade with these colonies, which were singled out by the [[Rump Parliament]] in [[An Act for prohibiting Trade with the Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego]], which was passed on 30 October 1650. This stated that <blockquote>due punishment [be] inflicted upon the said Delinquents, do Declare all and every the said persons in Barbada's, Antego, Bermuda's and Virginia, that have contrived, abetted, aided or assisted those horrid Rebellions, or have since willingly joyned with them, to be notorious Robbers and Traitors, and such as by the Law of Nations are not to be permitted any maner of Commerce or Traffique with any people whatsoever; and do forbid to all maner of persons, Foreiners, and others, all maner of Commerce, Traffique and Correspondency whatsoever, to be used or held with the said Rebels in the Barbada's, Bermuda's, Virginia and Antego, or either of them.</blockquote> Parliamentary privateers were authorised to prey on vessels trading with these colonies. The Rump Parliament began amassing forces for the conquests of these colonies before the English colonies in the West Indies were caught up in the [[Second Anglo-Dutch War]]. Bermuda would eventually reach a compromise with the London Government which kept the Parliamentary forces out, and preserved the [[status quo]] within the colony.

==Settlement of the Bahamas==

William Sayle established the first English settlement of the Bahamas between 1646 and 1648 on the island of [[Eleuthera]], establishing England's claim to the Bahamas archipelago. He left Bermuda with seventy settlers, mostly Bermudians and some English, who were looking for a place where they could worship God freely. To this end they settled on the Island of Segatoo which they gave the name ''Eleuthera'', from the Greek word meaning ''freedom''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.eleuthera-map.com/eleuthera-island.htm|title=Eleuthera Island :: History Notes|website=www.eleuthera-map.com}}</ref> This settlement was planned and authorised from England, and did not result from Bermuda's internal strife. As England's first trans-Atlantic colony to become self-sustaining, Bermuda had been important in supporting the establishment of other English colonies in North America and the west Indies, and the settlement of the Bahamas was to take place from the Bermuda, rather than directly from England. Many of the settlers were, in fact, driven out of Bermuda by intolerance and persecution resulting from the Civil War. In 1644, Bermudian Independent Puritans had sent an expedition to explore the Bahamas, but one vessel was lost and the other failed to find a suitable island.

The exact dates and circumstances of Sayle's voyage are uncertain. Some sources say that Sayle first left Bermuda in 1646, however, Sayle and his [[Eleutheran Adventurers]] did not agree on their "Articles and Orders of Incorporation" until 9 July 1647.<ref name="Riley, 28">Riley, 28</ref> Perhaps Sayle made at least two voyages, for in a letter of March 1646, William Rener of Bermuda writes to John Winthrop of Massachusetts to report that of two ships recently sailed to the Bahamas, one had been lost and one returned to Bermuda without having found the Bahamas. Rener also mentions that he and Sayle had purchased half interest in a ship, the ''William'', for the purpose of sailing to the Bahamas. In any case, Sayle took seventy people to settle at some point between spring 1646 and autumn 1648. The victorious Royalist Government of Bermuda subsequently ordered two other Cromwellian ministers, and sixty of their followers, to emigrate to the Bahamas.<ref name="Bermuda online">Bermuda online</ref>

Sayle's legal claim to proprietorship in the Bahamas now seems questionable. In 1646, Sayle, then of [[Bermuda]], claimed to have a grant from the English Parliament to the island of Sagatos, Bahamas, but no record of this grant can be found in ''The Journal of the House of Commons''.<ref name="Bethell, 83">Bethell, 83</ref> However, on 31 August 1649 ''The Journal'' does record that "An Act for Settling the Islands in the West Indies betwixt the Degrees of Twenty-four and Twenty-nine North Latitude was passed."<ref name="Riley, 31">Riley, 31</ref> Though the Act does not mention William Sayle specifically, a letter from lawyer John Bolles dated 15 August 1654 refers to an act passed in 1650 "for encouragement of adventurers to some newly discovered Islands", and Bolles mentions "William Saile" as one of the twenty-six proprietors.<ref name="Riley, 31"/> Authorisation, then, may have come after the fact. Sayles was the only one of the twenty-six proprietors to settle in the Bahamas, and he tried to exercise propriety rights over the island much of his life.<ref name="Bethell, 83"/>

The difficulties of frontier life and of internal conflicts were not fertile ground for a democracy. On the voyage to the Bahamas, a Captain Butler, one of the settlers from England, rebelled against the Articles and caused such trouble in the new settlement that William Sayle left the original settlement in north Eleuthera for the nearby island of St. George's Cay, now known as [[Spanish Wells]].

Following the Government of Bermuda's acceptance of the sovereignty of Parliament, exiled Independents were permitted to return to the colony. In 1657, Sayle returned to Bermuda, and in 1658, he was re-appointed Governor (he was first appointed Deputy Governor and Captain General on 30 June),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wiki.whitneygen.org/wrg/index.php/Archive:Bermuda_Under_Sommer_Islands_Company_1612_-_1684|title=Archive:Bermuda Under Sommer Islands Company 1612 - 1684 - WRG|website=wiki.whitneygen.org}}</ref> a position he lost in 1662, when he was appointed to the Council of Bermuda.<ref>{{cite book |editor=EDITED BY W. NOEL SAINSBURY, OF THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE |date=1964 |title=CALENDAR OF STATE PAPERS, COLONIAL SERIES, AMERICA AND WEST INDIES, 1661-1668. PRESERVED IN HER MAJESTY'S PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. |location=London |publisher=First published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1880. REPRINTED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE, LONDON, BY KRAUS REPRINT LTD. VADUZ, 1964. |at=Page 111, 1662? |quote=372. Petition of Capt. Thos. Trafford to the King. That Will. Sayle, a severe separatist had surreptitiously possessed himself of the Government of the Bermudas, and exercised cruel tyrannies over the inhabitants, for which he was by the then Committee for Foreign Plantations adjudged fit for banishment; but by the exorbitant power of Desborow and Jones, two persons proscribed by Parliament, who were sent thither, Sayle was settled in that Government. Prays to be sent over to take the Government, which he presumes to undertake, "because he has spent so much time in travel." ''Capt. Florentia Seymour was appointed to succeed Wm. Sayle as Governor, September 1662, see Gen. Lefroy's Memorials of the Bermudas'', II. 185. 1 p. (Col. Papers, Vol. XVI., No. 107.)}}</ref> He was also re-appointed Commander of the King’s Castle.<ref>A. C. Hollis Hallett</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hollis Hallett |first1=A. C. |title=Bermuda under the Somers Isles Company: Civil Records. Volume I. 1612-1669 |page=475 |date=2005 |publisher=A joint publication of Juniperhill Press and Bermuda Maritime Museum Press |location=Bermuda |ISBN=0-921992-14-9 |language=en |quote=1660 Jul 11 Council Meeting held at Sg<br>[CR III:176B-177B.]<br>Present: Capt. William SAYLE, Governor, Capt. George BASCUM, Mr. John DEVITT, Mr. John MILNER, Mr. Richard NORWOOD, Capt. Thomas RICHARDS, Capt. fflorentia SEMOR, Capt. Christopher SMITH, Capt. George TUCKER, Henrie TUCKER, Secretary, Mr. ffrancis WATLINGTON.<br>1. The Governor having been lately informed by a vessel from Barbadoes bound to New England that a Spanish fleet is for certain appointed for the invading [of Bermuda] {here a line or two of text is lost at the top of the page.}<br>2. [I] do conceive that it doth greatly concern all officers of these Islands to fortify [the Island?] against all foreign enemies as speedily as possibly we may. Whereupon it is [una]nimously consented unto and ordered at the Council Table that breastworks be cast up [in] such bays upon the Main or any other such means used as the Councillors, Captains, and other most judicious persons in the several Tribes shall pick upon in their judg[ment] to be most effectual for the opposing and repelling of an enemy in case of an[y ac]tion; And whatsoever order shall be published in the several Tribes in relation [to the] premises are to be by the Inhabitants carefully and speedily observed. But in [case?] the generality of the Inhabitants shall conceive that the work may be carried [out? at a] lesser charge by the way of an Assembly [i.e. vote?] rather than by the present order of the Governor and Council, it is this day ordered that their determinations be for this [occasion? as] signified[?] by the several Councillors to the Governor that he may with all expedition send warrants for the settling of an Assembly in relation to the premises, knowing full well that delays are the forerunner of unavoidable danger and ruin if not ——.<br>3. It is likewise unaminously ordered that Capt. Christopher SMITH and Thomas WELLS together with such workmen as Thomas WELLS shall nominate shall be by warrant forthwith empowered to make[?] choice of such and so many trees as shall make 12 pair of wheels and carriages for ordnance for the use of the several forts and platforms at Towne or elsewhere, and that the said trees and timber be appraised by 12 indifferent men and the same paid for according to the order in the Book of Orders.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hollis Hallett |first1=A. C. |title=Bermuda under the Somers Isles Company: Civil Records. Volume I. 1612-1669 |page=480 |date=2005 |publisher=A joint publication of Juniperhill Press and Bermuda Maritime Museum Press |location=Bermuda |ISBN=0-921992-14-9 |language=en |quote=1660 Oct 18 Council Meeting held in the Vestry house in Pg<br>[CR III:179B-180B.]<br>Present: Capt. William SAYLE, Governor, and the whole Council (except Capt. Josias ffORSTER, Mr. Jo. MILNER. Mr. Joseph MOORE, Capt. Thomas RICHARDS, Capt. fflorentia SEMOR.)<br>3. Thomas WELLS, carpenter, hath at this meeting contracted with the Governor about six weeks hence to begin and with speed finish ten pair of wheels and eight carriages for ordnance for which work when finished the Governor is to pay unto him £7 stlg.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hollis Hallett |first1=A. C. |title=Bermuda under the Somers Isles Company: Civil Records. Volume I. 1612-1669 |page=545 |date=2005 |publisher=A joint publication of Juniperhill Press and Bermuda Maritime Museum Press |location=Bermuda |ISBN=0-921992-14-9 |language=en |quote=1662/63 Jan 27 Assembly Report to Company<br>[CR Frag. G-H: 67-76 Lefroy II:187#2.]<br>...<br>c). Secondly, if there were sent sawyers and other workmen to make it fit for us[?] to Roanoak, we might be sufficiently furnished both with great timber, planks and pine masts[?] not only for shipping if they needed but for forts, provided we have vessels of our own to transport the workmen and supply the [means] to bring hither their workmanship, and at a far cheaper ra[te than in] England can be supplied from Norway.<br>But some will haply say if you had shipping of your own [it would cause] a hindrance unto the Adventurers’ trade in Sommer Isla[nds and the] Magazine ships may return unfreighted. We answer no, for there is a standing law which is diligently observed, that no Tobacco be exported out of these Islands until the Magazine ship be laden or refuse it. And for the Adventurers’ trade we shall much enlarge it, had we vesssels of our own, by supplying other parts and petty plantations with the superfluities of their own cargos whereby they will be the sooner vended, make the better returns yearly, and the Magazine ship fuller freighted with more considerable commodities. And we humbly conceive that freeholders here may upon so good accompt dispose and sell their own timber. This we humbly present as our remonstrance according to our duty as we conceive tending unto the prosperity of the plantation the employment of our youth in navigation whereby in time they may be fitted [as in] England to serve His Majesty and their Country in places of more considerable employment. All these afore-expressed Acts, Aggrievances and Remonstrances was done and confirmed within the limited time of the Hon. Company this 28 Jan 1662.<br>Signatures {in two groups, the Assembly, first, then the Council}:<br>George BASCOM, Roger BAYLY, Edward BRACKLEY, Edward BRANGMAN, Thomas BRERETON, Thomas BURGES, Christopher BURROES, John DORRELL, Clerk, Edward EVANS, Thomas GRIFFEN Snr., Thomas HALL, Richard HANGER, John HARRIOT, John HUBBARD, Richard HUNT, Phillip LEA, Thomas LECRAFT, David MINGE, Anthony PENISTON, William PENISTON, Thomas PLUMER, John RIVERS, ffrancis SALTUS, Boas SHARPE, Thomas SMITH, John SQUIRE, Henery STALVERS, Jonathan STOKES, James STURROP, John WAINRIGHTE Snr., Nathan WATERMAN, Thomas WELLS, Charles WHETENHALL, Speaker, Samuell WHITNEY, Will WILLIAMS, Samuell WISE.<br>fflorentia SEYMER, [Governor], John DEVITT, William GREENWAY, Richard JENNYNS, John NICHOLLS, Sheriff, William SAYLE, Edward SHERLOCK, ffrancis TUCKER, Henry TUCKER, Secretary, ffrancis WATLINGTON, William WAYLITT.<br>Examined 18 Mar 1662, Vera Copia Henry TUCKER, Secretary.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hollis Hallett |first1=A. C. |title=Bermuda under the Somers Isles Company: Civil Records. Volume I. 1612-1669 |page=651 |date=2005 |publisher=A joint publication of Juniperhill Press and Bermuda Maritime Museum Press |location=Bermuda |ISBN=0-921992-14-9 |language=en |quote=1668 Dec 15 Assizes held at Sg<br>[CR VB:121-127.]<br>Judges:<br>Capt. Samuell WHALLEY, Governor and Captain General of these Islands, Capt. George HUBBARD, Dv; Capt. Richard JENNYNS, Sm; Mr. Joseph MOORE, Public Lands [Sg]; Mr. Richard NORWOOD, Pm; Capt. William SAYLE, Commander of the King’s Castle and Councillor of State; Capt. fflorentius SEYMER, Councillor of State; Mr. Ed. SHERLOCK, Sn; Mr. Richard STAFFORD, Sheriff and Councillor of State; Capt. ffrancis TUCKER, Commander of Paget’s Fort; Henry TUCKER, Secretary; Mr. John WAINWRIGHTE Snr., Wk; Mr. Richard WOLDRIDGE, Hm.<br>The names of the Gentlemen of the Grand Inquest:<br>Capt. Christopher BURROES, Mr. John ELWICKE, Mr. Henry ffORDE, Mr. John HARRIOT, Mr. Richard HUNT, Capt. Phillip LEA, Mr. Thomas LECRAFT, Mr. William OUTERBRIDGE, Mr. William PEASELIE, Capt. Thomas RICHARDS, Foreman, Mr. Boas SHARPE, Lt. Henry STALVERS, Lt. Jonathan STOKES, Mr. Paule TRIMINGHAM, Ens. Thomas WELLS, Mr. Hugh WENTWORTH.<br>The Names of Jurors for Life and Death<br>Charles UPOWEN [APOWEN], John ARGENT, Edward BLAY, Larence DILL, Nehemiah DUNSCOM, John GRIFFIN, Hamon JOHNSON, John LIDDELL, Mr. James NEWBOLD, Foreman, Peter PRUDON, Richard SHEDLOCK, Roger WAIGHTMAN.<br>Nisi prius Jurors:<br>1. Mr. James BROWNE, Foreman, Ens. William BURCH, Mr. Mich: BURROES, Nathan: BUTTERFILD, ffrancis DICKESON, Henry HARVIE, John KINGE, Richard LEA, Thomas MOORE, Severan VICARS, Jefferie WAINWRIGHTE, John WELCH.<br>2 Edward CHOYCE, James DORSET Snr., Sgt. Thomas JOHNSON, John JONES, Thomas PARKER, John RENALLS, David ROWE, Mr. Thomas SHAWE, Nathan: WATERMAN, Mr. Leonard WHITE, Foreman, Joseph WOODS, John YOUNG Jnr.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hollis Hallett |first1=A. C. |title=Bermuda under the Somers Isles Company: Civil Records. Volume II. 1668/69–1684/85. Ships Entered, Cleared. Orders and Constitutions (1622) |page=14 |date=2005 |publisher=A joint publication of Juniperhill Press and Bermuda Maritime Museum Press |location=Bermuda |ISBN=0-921992-14-9 |language=en |quote=1669 May 15 Swearing in of Sir John Heydon, Governor<br>[CR VB:130; Lefroy II:286#1.]<br>1. Memorandum: Saturday the 15 May Ano: Dom: 1669 the Magazine ship Sommer Islands Merchant, Capt. John JENKINS master, dropped anchor in Castle Harbour and brought with her Sir John HEYDON, Kt., to be Governor. He was accepted, entertained, and installed as Governor according to the Company’s Commission directed to Capt. Samuel WHALLEY, Mr. Richard STAFFORD, Sheriff, Capt. George HUBBARD, Mr. Richard WOLDRIDGE, and Henry TUCKER, Secretary. After Sir John took the oath of Governor, and the Company’s General Letter was read, Capt. John DARRELL for Wk, Mr. Jonathan TURNER for Dv, Mr. Thomas WELLS for Sm, and Capt. Godheard ASSER for Hm, were sworn as Councillors for their respective Tribes according to the Company’s appointment, on the 17 November 1669. Further, according to instructions, Mr. Samuel SMITH, Minister, was released from prison.<br>2. Memorandum: Tuesday, 18 May 1669, Sir John HEYDON went to the King’s Castle where he was civilly entertained by Capt. William SAYLE who formally resigned the command of the Castle to Sir John HEYDON according to the Company’s instructions.}}</ref>

==Articles and orders of 1647==
The Articles that Sayle drew up in 1647 reflect the ambiguities of the [[English Civil War]] taking place at that time between Royalists and Parliamentarians. Therefore, while the preamble refers to the "Raign of our Soveraign Lord Charles, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland; Defender of the Faith, &c", the articles themselves make clear that the new settlement was to be effectively independent, making no further mention of royal authority. On the contrary, they concern the rules governing the "Members of the Republick" and the "Magistracie or officers of the Republicke". The articles established freedom of religion and opinion, three hundred acres of land per settler, governance under a governor and twelve councillors chosen from a senate composed of the first 100 settlers, and humane treatment of any indigenous people still on the island. It has been noted that if Sayle's settlement had been successful, then he would have created in the Bahamas "the first democratic state in the New World,"<ref name="Riley, 28"/> some 130 years before the American Revolution.

==Governor of Carolina Colony==
In 1669, Sayle took over the command of a party of settlers to a new settlement in Carolina after Sir John Yeamans resigned, while undergoing repairs of his vessel in Bermuda. He arrived in South Carolina aboard a [[Bermuda sloop]] with a number of Bermudian families, and founded the town of [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]]. In 1670, William Sayle, then in his eighties, became the first Colonial Governor of the colony of [[Province of Carolina|Carolina]] (in 1669, Carolina would be split into two provinces, and in 1712 the southern ''Clarendon province'', that included Charleston, became [[South Carolina]] while the Albemarle province became [[North Carolina]]). Sayles was also instrumental in encouraging the Lords Proprietors to successfully apply for a grant of The Bahama Islands in 1670. He died in 1671.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*Bethell, A. Talbot. ''Early Settlers of the Bahamas and Colonists of North America'', 1937. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., (2008) Reprint.
*Jarvis, Michael ''The Exodus'', in ''The Bermudian'' magazine, June 2001.
*Riley, Sandra. ''Homeward Bound: A History of the Bahama Islands to 1850 with a Definitive Study of Abaco in the American Loyalist Plantation Period''. Miami, Florida: Riley Hall Publishers, 2000. Print.

==External links==
*[http://www.carolana.com/Carolina/Governors/wsayle.html Website on Carolina Governors]
*[http://www.jabezcorner.com/Grand_Bahama/1647_articles.htm Articles and orders of 1647 of the Eleutheran Adventurers] 
*[http://www.bermuda-online.org/history.htm Bermuda online]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sayle, William}}
[[Category:1671 deaths]]
[[Category:Governors of Bermuda]]
[[Category:Colonial governors of South Carolina]]
[[Category:Colonial officials for the Kingdom of England]]
[[Category:1590 births]]
[[Category:Republicanism in the Bahamas]]
[[Category:Republicanism in Bermuda]]