The Migration from Surinam to Jamaica. 147 



powder, he was compelled to give in; aud, with the approval of the Coun- 

 cil and Assembly, consented to terms, of which the following had special 

 reference to the English: (1) That all revenues appointed for the use of 

 church and ministers should be reserved as well for the payment of Dutch 

 as English ministers ; and that the English should have the election of 

 their own ministers ; (2) that no oath should be required from the 

 English but to be faithful to the States of Zealand whilst living in Surinam, 

 and in case the King of England should attack it, to keep quiet and give 

 no assistance, but to fight against all other enemies ; (3) that all present 

 inhabiters should have equal privileges with Netherlanders ; (4) that any 

 wishing to depart should have power to sell their estates, and the Gover- 

 nor should cause them to be transported at moderate freight ; and (5) that 

 all such as intend off should be furnished with a vessel and a pass from 

 Commissioner Crynsens. 



There were at the time about 500 British officers and soldiers in the 

 colony. William, 6th Lord Willoughby, writing from Barbados, says that 

 Surinam was " pitifully surrendered without resistance. The Conditions, 

 'tis true, were not amiss." 



William Byam, the Governor above mentioned, born at Luccombe, 

 Isle of Wight, England, on the 9th March, 1622, was educated at Trinity 

 College, Dublin ; he commanded a party of rebels at Bridge water in 1645 

 and was taken prisoner by Fairfax. He emigrated to Barbados and in 

 1651-2 was appointed by Lord Wiloughby to treat for the rendition of 

 that island to the Parliament. In 1654 he was made Governor of Surinam 

 and so continued until he was compelled to yield it to the Dutch, as 

 above stated ; whereupon he and some of the settlers removed to Antigua 

 where he died in 1670. His wife was Dorothy Knollys, niece of the Earl 

 of Banbury. Her two brothers settled in Jamaica. Byam's daughter, 

 Mary, married Colonel George Nedham, son of Sir Robert Nedham of 

 Poole Park, Shropshire, a royalist who fled after the battle of Worcester 

 to Antigua, and after his marriage migrated to Jamaica and settled 

 Sheaton in St. Thonias-in-the-Vale. Here he represented St. Mary in the 

 House of Assembly in 1673 and later St. George and St, Thomas-in-the 

 Vale. He was speaker pro tempore in 1666 and 1668. In 1688 he was 

 expelled the Assembly, which the Governor, the Duke of Albemarle, 

 promptly dissolved ; appointing Nedham a member of the Council. He 

 returned to England where he died ia the following year. His youngest 

 daughter, Elizabeth Grace, born in 1680, married John Ellis, the ancestor 

 of the first Lord Seaford. The Nedhams, for a greater part of the 

 eighteenth century, were prominent landowners in Jamaica and supplied 

 several members to the House of Assembly. 



In July 1667, at a Council of War held by Sir John Harinan, 

 commander-in-chief in the West Indies, in Nevis Road, at which Colonel 

 Samuel Barry, a member of the Council of Jamaica, was present, it was 

 decided that the force at command was not strong enough to attack 

 St. Kitts with success, and it waa desirable therefore to try some other 



