Brief History
From 1651 to 1667 this was a settlement largely comprising of fleeing Royalists wishing to escape the fall out from the English Civil War. It's population rose to over 4,000 on the banks of the Suriname river. Not only did Willoughbyland produce fine sugar, it also exported dyes, tobacco, honey, wax, 'rich gums, balsoms, many Physickall drugs', and cotton.

Slaves began to arrive after 1663 and the colony began to be a more brutal place. However its doom was to lie in the Anglo-Dutch war which saw the colony invaded and then traded for New Amsterdam (New York) in 1667.

Over a century later the Dutch and British would be on opposing sides during the Napoleonic Wars. The British would occupy Dutch Guiana from 1799 until 1802 and then again from 1804 to 1816.

Flag flying over Willoughby
Flag
willoughby Map
1781 Map of Guianas
willoughby
Image



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by Stephen Luscombe