ghap. I.] WEST INDIES. 21 
British dominions,* lord Willoughby, who had 
eight or nine years of his lease unexpired, applied 
to the king for leave to return to his government of 
Barbadoes. To this application no objection would 
have been made by the inhabitants, if his lordship, 
had considered himself merely as representative of 
the crown* but his connection and contract with 
the earl of Carlisle, were by this time sufficiently 
understood by the planters, who saw with astonish¬ 
ment, that they were regarded by those great lords 
as mere tenants at will of their possessions. They 
solicited therefore the king’s support and protec¬ 
tion. “ They pleaded,” says Clarendon, <c that they 
were the king’s subjects; that they had repaired to 
Barbadoes as to a desolate place, and had by their 
industry obtained a livelihood there, when they 
could not with a good conscience stay in England; 
that if they should now be left to those lords to 
ransom themselves and compound for their estates, 
they must leave the country, and the plantation be 
destroyed, which yielded his majesty so great a re¬ 
venue.” Respecting the charter granted to the earl 
of Carlisle, they insisted, positively, that it was 
void in law; and they made two humble proposi¬ 
tions to the king, either that his majesty would 
* On the iSth of February, 1661, his Majesty honoured thirteen 
gentlemen of Barbadoes with the dignity of baronetage, in considera¬ 
tion of their sufferings and loyalty during the civil war : They were. Sir 
John Colleton, Sir James Modi ford. Sir James Drax, Sir Robert Da- 
vers, Sir Robert Racket, Sir John Yeamans, Sir Timothy Thornhill, 
Sir John Whitham, Sir Robert Legard, Sir John Worsum, Sir John 
Rawdon, Sir Edwyn Stede, Sir Willoughby Chamberlayne. 
