THE STORY OF THE BETTISCOMBE SKULL. 191 



Mr. Vere Langford Oliver (recently elected a member of this 

 club), who is well known in my part of the West Indies as the 

 author of an important work " The History of Antigua " 

 in three volume* (1894-1899) containing the genealogies of 

 numerous families in the Leeward Islands, was able to 

 give me some most interesting and valuable information, 

 consisting o? extracts from wills and other documents which he 

 had obtained in his researches relating to the families of these 

 Islands. To that same number of the " S. and D. Notes and 

 Queries," curiously enough, Mi*. Oliver had contributed certain 

 particulars relating to the " Monmouth Rebels " and had re- 

 ferred to Hotten's " Original List of Emigrants " (1874), by 

 which we learn that very few of these rebels seemed to have 

 suffered the death penalty. They were mostly young and able- 

 bodied men of the agricultural class, and the King's clemency 

 was extended to them on condition that they were transported 

 to the plantations to serve for ten years. The Island of 

 Barbadoes, at that period the wealthiest and most important 

 British West Indian Colony, seemed to have procured most of 

 them. These white servants were not necessarily sold to the 

 highest bidder, but were allotted to such estates as were 

 deficient, and there were special Colonial Laws passed for 

 their proper treatment. They had to serve in the Militia, 

 and were generally occupied in various responsible posts 

 connected with the cultivation of the sugar plantations. 

 Such of them as were educated and had friends no doubt did 

 not serve their full time, and as soon as they were free obtained 

 grants of land and became merchants and planters. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that the question to 

 whom the skull at Bettiscombe belonged has now become 

 merged in the more interesting inquiry what became of 

 " Azarias Pinney, of Axminster," who took part in the 

 Monmouth rebellion ? From the information furnished by 

 Mr. Oliver it is now made clear that there were two Azariah 

 Pinneys ; one, the Monmouth rebel, son of the non-conform- 

 ing minister, the Rev. John Pinney, of Bettiscombe (who was 

 succeeded in his living in the neighbouring parish of 



