Willem Hunthum

Hunthum was regarded as either Patron or "Governor" of the Territory from 1663 to 1672 when control of the islands passed to the British in the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

Accordingly, records relating to Hunthum's title were at best ignored by the British, and possibly destroyed in support of their competing claim made against the Dutch throne later.

Hunthum was a Rotterdam merchant, who purchased the property right to Tortola, and possibly certain other of the Virgin Islands, from the Dutch West India Company during the 1650s.

"[3] The same text goes on to assert that in the same year "Dutch buccaneers were drive out of Tortola by a similar band of adventurers calling themselves English."

It was not until 1684 that the Dutch ambassador, Arnout van Citters, formally requested the return of Tortola, and he did so (curiously to British eyes) based the claim on the private rights of the widow of Willem Hunthum.