Henry Powell (governor)

Rushing back to England John Powell sought aid and sponsorship from Sir William Courteen (a royalist) along with Peter Courteen, John Moncy and his own brother Henry Powell to settle the island, against an opposing faction in the roundhead [1] Earl James Hay.

[2] With Henry Powell placed in command of 80 men on board a ship, so began the fraught colonization and early founding of the island of Barbados as this small number of people (which included ten captured negroes) landed at what was to become Holetown on 20 February 1627.

Governance and law was in much dispute from this early period with Hay and Charles Wolverston also seeking and being granted Governorship of the island [3] and they soon appointed twelve assistants with John Swan (as first lieutenant governor),[2] followed by the having Governor John Powell, Jnr and some of his supporters arrested.

However Henry Powell returned with 100 men as reinforcement and on 26 February 1629 freed his nephew and jailed Wolverston (along with deputy governor William Deane, who had changed sides).

At the end of his own life Henry Powell gave a deposition (25 February 1657) recounting these events, this was shortly before he granted his Indian slaves their freedom.