THE STORY OP THE BETTISCOMBE SKULL. 190 



what was the occasion for hiding it ? This would hardly 

 have been the case had it formed the uniform of a local 

 Defence Force, raised to meet the Frenchman when he came 

 prowling round those coasts, what time Nelson came courting 

 his widow-bride in Nevis in H.M.S. Boreas* It is a pity that 

 not even one of the buttons has been preserved so as to show 

 whether there remained upon it aught of the Duke's cypher, 

 or other badge by which its identity could have been estab- 

 lished. Yet it is not a very wide conjecture to imagine 

 that this faded old coat with tarnished buttons was all that 

 was left as a memorial of the youthful ardour and zealous 

 faith of this follower of the " Protestant Duke," put away 

 when Azariah Pinney came home to die, and forgotten 

 during that century and a half until it came upon the aston- 

 ished gaze of those from whom all knowledge of the history of 

 the exile had long since passed away. 



So far, then, no additional light has been thrown on the 

 history of the skull, or as to which member of the Pinney 

 family brought the skull to Bettiscombe. Was it John 

 Pinney (Pretor) and what time he, in conjunction with his son, 

 John Frederick (the second), disposed of the estates a century 

 ago, and returned, we may presume, to end his days in England ? 

 If so, may not one's imagination easily lead one to believe 

 that it was the skull of old " Bettiscombe," the slave pur- 

 chased by him in 1765 (who at that time, after many years 

 of faithful service, was undoubtedly dead, for his name no 

 longer appeared in the last list of slaves entered in the " Plan- 

 tation Book "), taken by his old master with him to the 

 very place, indeed, from which his trusty servant had taken 

 his name, as "a memento of his humble follower ! " If 

 this be so, one can understand the history of the legend 

 better, and the motive that prompted the home-bringing of 



* Mr. Oliver refers iu an extract from the " Minutes of Council of Nevia 

 for 1693," to " Lieut." Azariah Pinney being chosen one of the two Com- 

 missioners to assess Charles Town. 



