Berbice is a region in Guyana, South America, sometimes known as the "ancient county" or "Mad House". The Berbice River runs through it. It is a former Dutch colony, as is evidenced by the existence of the nearly extinct Berbice Creole Dutch (based on the lexicon and grammar of the West African language, Ijo).
Contents |
Colonial history
Berbice was settled in 1627 by the Dutchman Abraham van Peere. A few years later Suriname was settled by Lord Willoughby and Lawrence Hyde under a grant from the English King, Charles II. In the beginning, therefore, Suriname was a British and Berbice a Dutch possession.
In November 1712 Berbice was briefly occupied by the French under Baron de Mouans. From 27 Feb 1781 to Feb 1782 British forces occupied Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice (subordinated to Barbados). From February 1782 to 1784 the French occupied Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo. In 1784 Berbice was restored to the Netherlands.
On 22 April 1796 the British occupied the territory. On 27 March 1802 Berbice was restored to the Batavian Republic (the then-current name of the Netherlands). In September 1803 the British occupied the territory again. On 13 August 1814 Berbice became a British colony. The colony was formally ceded to Britain by the Netherlands on 20 November 1815. On 21 July 1831 Berbice was united with Demerara-Essequibo as British Guiana.
Commanders in the Dutch era
- Matthijs Bergenaar (1666 - 1671)
- Cornelis Marinus (1671 - 1683)
- Gideon Bourse (1683 - 1684)
- Lucas Coudrie (1684 - 1687)
- Matthijs de Feer (1687 - 1712)
- Steven de Waterman (1712 - 1714)
- Anthony Tierens (1714 - 1733)
Lieutenant governors in the British era
- Robert Nicholson (1806 - 1807)
- James Montgomery (1807 - 1809)
- William Woodly (1809 - 1810)
- Samuel Dalrymple (1810)
- Robert Gordon (1st time) (1810 - 1812)
- John Murry (1812 - 1813)
- Robert Gordon (2nd time) (1813)
- Grant (acting) (1813 - 1814)
- Henry William Bentinck (1814 - 1820)
- Thistlewayte (acting) (1820 - 1821)
- J. Cameron (acting) (1821)
- Henry Beard (1821 - 21 Jul 1831)
See also
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
