ANGLO-DUTCH RELATIONS IN SURINAM
CLIFFORD, Jeronimy.
The case and replication of the legal representatives of Jeronimy Clifford; a British subject; and late merchant and planter of Surinam, deceased; to the information of the directors of the Society of Surinam, presented, on the 7th of October 1762, to their High Mightinesses the Lords States General of the United Provinces, upon the memorial presented by his Excellency Sir Joseph Yorke to the assembly of their High Mightinesses on the 13th of July 1762.
London, C. Say, 1763.
8vo, pp. [1 (additional title printed in red and black)], [1 (blank)], [2 (prefatory material)], 478; p. 429 misnumbered as p. 249; with a large folding map bound before the two titles; a little offsetting to first title and last page; a very good copy in contemporary sprinkled calf, spine decorated gilt with a gilt morocco lettering-piece; extremities rubbed, upper joint split at head; Macclesfield library bookplate to the front pastedown and blind stamps to preliminary leaves.
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The case and replication of the legal representatives of Jeronimy Clifford; a British subject; and late merchant and planter of Surinam, deceased; to the information of the directors of the Society of Surinam, presented, on the 7th of October 1762, to their High Mightinesses the Lords States General of the United Provinces, upon the memorial presented by his Excellency Sir Joseph Yorke to the assembly of their High Mightinesses on the 13th of July 1762.
First edition of this comprehensive summary of Clifford’s long-running legal battle with the Dutch West India Company in Surinam over Corcabo, his sugar plantation, from the Macclesfield library, including a handsome folding ‘map of the colony of Surinam’.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Breda (1667) English claims to Surinam were ceded to the Netherlands, but English subjects residing there retained their rights, including those of disposing of their property and removing their effects from the country. Andrew Clifford and his son Jeronimy, owners of a substantial plantation in Surinam, were prevented by the Dutch West India Company and its successor, the Chartered Society of Surinam, from taking their wealth out of the colony, which led to prolonged litigation, continued by Jeronimy’s representatives long after his death in 1737.
The company resorted to particularly underhand tactics throughout the course of the affair. When Andrew Clifford first tried to sell the land in 1675 he was given a bill of exchange which was not honoured when he returned home to England, forcing him to return to Corcabo allegedly for a further two years. However, once the Governor had secured the continued stay of the Cliffords, he arranged that Jeronimy, whose plantation contributed about one sixteenth of all the sugar produced in the colony, be taxed at a higher rate, and for some of his lands to be seized and redistributed. When Jeronimy seemed about to leave for Jamaica various ruses were constructed to prevent him from removing his fortune from the colony: he was imprisoned for his refusal to take an oath which was contrary to the third article of capitulation, and a division was affected between Jeronimy and his wife.
ESTC T74229; Higgs, 2933; Sabin 13685 (does not call for the red and black title or the prefatory leaf present here).
