Captain Warwick Lake of Recruit marooned an impressed seaman, Robert Jeffrey, there on 13 December 1807.

In 1856 the Americans claimed the island, and in a very short period of time quarried 100,000 tons of phosphate that served as fertiliser for the exhausted lands of the Southern States.

Uniquely, an important insurrection occurred when West Indian black workers revolted against the “slavery proclivities” of a white American superintendent vis-à-vis wage-earning free men.

Four of the 200 workers "fatally injured" Superintendent Snow and commandeered the island and company money and stores.

Sombrero, lying in the route of shipping from Britain to South and Central America, lay in an area with many hazards and in 1848 the Admiralty was asked to install a light on it.

On 30 June 1859, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's ship Paramatta was wrecked on her maiden voyage on Horseshoe Reef,[4] which resulted in another request to the Admiralty.

Coincidentally, Paramatta and the Lighthouse built following her demise were both constructed by the same shipyard, the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, on the banks of the River Lea in Blackwall, London.

His duties included organising the transport of the guano to a spot which was convenient for loading the lighters to take the guano to the ships lying off the island, overseeing the construction of derricks and engine houses, and arranging for the laying of the tram lines for the wagons, which were loaded at the quarries.

[7] In 1890, the phosphate works on the island were abandoned and by 1893 the lighthouse had come under the authority of the British Board of Trade, later the Department of Transport.

In 1931, the old light system was changed and improved to 200,000 candle power and the tower received its first major repair when the basement was encased in concrete.

[1] It supports internationally important numbers of: In mid-June 2021 Anguilla National Trust (ANT) launched a programme to rid Sombrero Island of invasive mice.