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Inventing ingenios: experimental philosophy and the secret sugar-makers of the seventeenth-century Atlantic

2012; Routledge; Volume: 28; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/07341512.2012.694204

1477-2620

Eric Otremba,

History of Science and Medicine

Abstract This article examines how the Barbadian sugar industry was interpreted by the English scientific community in the latter seventeenth century. In particular it focuses upon the spread of ingenios (sugar mills) to Barbados from Brazil, and how this process was understood and chronicled by England's early scientific community of experimental philosophers. It then contrasts these narratives against archived plantation documents from this period, demonstrating how these writers, despite explicit claims to the contrary, were relatively unconcerned with creating an objective account of sugar-making. Rather, they highlighted specific elements of the industry in order to make the 'invention' of sugar appear congruent with their new experimental methodology. These scientific narratives thus ignore a host of factors within the early Barbadian industry, particularly the critical sugar-making knowledge embodied within the plantation's servile workforce. Rather than illuminating this facet of the industry, experimental philosophers efface these workers and portray ingenios as the laudable product of a few ingenious, experimenting white planters. Keywords: slaveryplantationsRoyal SocietyFrancis Baconexperimental philosophyBarbadossugarembodied knowledgedistributed cognitionimmutable mobiles Notes 1. Snow, Apopiroscopy: Or, a Compleat and Faithful History of Experiments and Observations: Not Only Chymical and Curious, but Mechanical; and in Several Arts, Sciences and Professions. Being Pleasant, Useful and Profitable. Extracted from the Most Authentick Writers, Manuscripts, and the Author's Experience. By T. Snow (London, 1702). Accessed through Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale, September 7, 2011. http://find.galegroup.com.floyd.lib.umn.edu/ecco/infomark.do?&contentSet=ECCOArticles&type=multipage&tabID=T001&prodId=ECCO&docId=CW3307099976&source=gale&userGroupName=umn_wilson&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE. Thomas Snow was a pseudonym for Richard Neve. It is unclear how proficient Snow was himself in producing scientific experiments. His work is mainly compiled through an incredibly thorough canon of seventeenth-century natural science works, although he does insist that these readings were augmented by many of his own personal experiments and observations. 2. Bacon's idea of a 'Natural History,' including what it should consist of and what its social utility should be, is most clearly detailed in a series of works he published in 1620 under the collective title of Instauratio Magna. Baconian science, the English Scientific Revolution, and the English Enlightenment all have extensive historiographies. For the best overviews see for example Hunter, Establishing the New Science. Other notable works include Porter, Creation of the Modern World; and Stewart, The Rise of Public Science; and Jacob, The Cultural Meaning of the Scientific Revolution. On the history of science more generally see Cohen, The Scientific Revolution; Shapin and Scheffer, Leviathan and the Air-Pump; and Golinski, Making Natural Knowledge. 3. Seventeenth-century experimental philosophers were not the first in Europe, or even England, to conceive of these now distinct ideas in this fashion, as many proto-forms of experimental philosophy can be found in the previous Tudor period. Nevertheless, the concept became more concrete within the minds of its practitioners after Bacon's publications in the 1620s. See Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature and Shapiro, Culture of Fact. 4. On the crucial importance of sugar to seventeenth-century English trade, see Drayton, 'The Collaboration of Labor,' 107–8. 5. Ingenio is a Spanish term which means the cluster of core buildings or 'works' of a sugar estate: primarily the mill, boiling house, and curing house, as well as any other auxiliary structures. Portuguese colonies used the similar term engenho, and both terms translate loosely into 'engine' or 'device.' When the English in Barbados first developed their sugar industry they referred to their mills as ingenios, but after the 1660s the term fell out of use in favor of 'sugar works.' See Schwartz, Tropical Babylons, 2. Notably, however, some experimental philosophers continued to use the term ingenio to refer to various agricultural processing machines well into the late seventeenth century, both in England and the larger English empire. See for example John Beale's article on cider presses in the Philosophical Transactions 11 (1676), 583–4. 6. 'Unfree' refers to a wide spectrum of coercive labor conditions which were prominent in the West Indies during this period. I prefer this word over slavery, as this broader category includes chattel slavery, European indentured servitude, and a litany of contracts which bonded nominally 'free' persons to plantation regimes for extended periods. While many of the white overseers mentioned in this article may have been free, there were a host of other structural constraints which had been created to retain them within the mill during this time. For more information on white 'bond slaves' during this period, see Donoghue, '"Out of the Land of Bondage": The English Revolution and the Atlantic Origins of Abolition'; and Beckles, 'A "Riotous and Unruly Lot.'" 7. This article draws upon a number of recent works from the history of science and technology when framing its narrative of effacement of Caribbean sugar workers. Pamela Smith's idea of 'artisanal epistemology' is invoked to describe the collection of tasks and knowledges assembled inside the plantation to create a properly functioning sugar estate, and to help describe the transmission of ideas about sugar-making from Caribbean workers to English natural scientists. See Smith, Body of the Artisan. More recently, see Roberts et al., The Mindful Hand. Steve Shapin's idea of the invisible technician is also invoked to describe how the knowledges of these artisanal sugar-makers were effaced in favor of an emphasis on a gentleman planter, who creates and manages his ingenio through diligent observation and careful experiment. Shapin, A Social History of Truth, ch. 8. Both of these concepts have recently been explored in more depth in Mukerji, Impossible Engineering. Finally, on the role of movement and migration within recent science studies, in particular as it relates to knowledge construction in the early modern Atlantic, see Smith, 'Science on the Move.' Finally, for information on concepts of technoscience networks, combinable and mutable objects, and centers of calculation, see Latour, Science in Action. 8. The classic work on this transformation is Mintz, Sweetness and Power. 9. For more historiographical information on the sugar revolution see Menard, Sweet Negotiations; and also Higman, 'The Sugar Revolution.' For statistics on English imports see McCusker and Menard, The Economy of British America, 151–8, and Menard, Sweet Negotiations, 68. 10. Several works contain detailed descriptions of the sugar-making process. One of the most detailed, which also stresses the novelty and complexity of English sugar-making in the seventeenth century is Barrett, 'Caribbean Sugar-production Standards in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.' See also Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society, 114–22. 11. Bacon's Preparative was initially published in 1620 as the third part of his Great Instauration, which also contained an introductory work on the Insturation, the Novum Organum, and the Preparative. The above quotes are from a 1670 English-language edition which was released as a stand-alone version of the Preparative and included a collection of sundry letters and articles from the late Bacon. See A Preparatory to the History Natural & Experimental Written Originally in Latine, by the Right Honourable Francis, Lord Verulam, Lord High Chancellour of England ; and Now Faithfully Rendred into English, by a Well-wisher to his Lordships Writings (1670), introductory material. Accessed through Early English Books Online Database, Text Creation Partnership (EEBO), http://eebo.chadwyck.com. 12. Ibid., 4. 13. Bacon, 'New Organon,' digitized by the Internet Archive. http://archive.org/details/worksfrancisbaco08bacoiala (accessed March 26, 2012). 14. Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum or A Naturall Historie In Ten Centuries, 156. Accessed through EEBO. 15. Most of these experiments can be found in Ibid. 16. My emphasis on sugar. By 'ignoble conceptions' Power means: 'A diffidence and desperation of most men (nay even of those of more discerning faculties) of ever reaching to any eminent Invention; and an inveterate conceit they are possess'd with of the old Maxim, That Nil dictum, quod non priùs dictum.' Power, Experimental Philosophy, in Three Books Containing New Experiments Microscopical, Mercurial, Magnetical, 190. Accessed through EEBO. 17. Evelyn, Numismata, a Discourse of Medals, 280. Accessed through EEBO. 18. Herwig, The Art of Curing Sympathetically, or Magnetically, 3. Accessed though EEBO. 19. See Preface from the English version of De Rochefort, The History of the Caribby-islands. Accessed through EEBO. See also Sandiford, The Cultural Politics of Sugar, 41. 20. Rochefort, The History of the Caribby-islands, 194. 21. Boyle's works also contain many references to Saccharum Saturni, or Sugar of Saturn, which is a separate entity. Sugar of Saturn, known today as Acetic acid, is an element found in vinegar and was often boiled in lead to create a sweet tasting substance (which if consumed repeatedly resulted in lead poisoning). The above-mentioned essay was an attempt by Boyle to create a sweet-tasting, non-sugar substitute that was not Sugar of Saturn. For examples of sugar within Boyle's works see Some Considerations Touching the Usefulnesse of Experimental Naturall Philosophy (1664); Experimental Notes of the Mechanical Origine or Production of Fixtness..s(1675); The Origine of Formes and Qualities… (1666); and Certain Physiological Essays (1669). Each accessed through EEBO. 22. Boyle, Certain Physiological Essays, 270. 23. Ibid., 272. Boyle also corresponded with Rochefort during this time; however, the letters have been lost. See Hunter, The Correspondence of Robert Boyle, vol. IV, 127. 24. A good summary of these developments can be found in Galloway, The Sugar Cane Industry; Curtin, The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex; and Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society, chs 1–3. 25. Within experimental philosophy works, the wonders which they emphasized were all products which were seen to have had a recent, significant impact on English society, such as the ones listed by Bacon and Power above. Other, older inventions, such as windmills and watermills, were not mentioned in experimental philosophy accounts as they were not seen to be recent innovations. While a sugar mill was in fact as old as these other mills, experimental philosophers overlooked this, as sugar had hitherto been a rare commodity within England, and sugar mills little known. Thus sugar was not unlike gunpowder or paper in this regard, which had long histories by the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but appeared 'new' to the English during this time. 26. Klooster, 'Anglo-Dutch Trade in the Seventeenth Century.' 27. Batie, 'Why Sugar?,' 18. 28. On these émigrés see Menard, Sweet Negotiations, ch. 3. 29. Handler, 'Father Antoine Biet's Visit to Barbados in 1654,' 66. 30. Snow, Apopiroscopy, 18. 31. Thomas, An Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the West-India Colonies. 32. Ibid., 13. 33. Ibid., 14. 34. Ligon, The A True & Exact History of the Island of Barbados. Accessed through EEBO. 35. In the latter seventeenth century, famous experimental philosophers such as Henry Pope Blunt, John Houghton, and Robert Boyle all reference Ligon within their natural history works. Boyle at one point refers to him as 'the Ingenious Mr. Lygon.' See Boyle, The Origine of Formes and Qualities, 136. Accessed through EEBO. 36. Ibid., 85. 37. Another publication from Ligon's period confirms his statements about Barbadian sugar in the 1640s, saying that it was 'of the worst sort.' See Gardyner, A Description of the New World, or, America Islands and Continent, 51. Accessed through EEBO. 38. Even as late as the eighteenth century the few manuals that did exist on sugar-making were only general primers. They refrained from giving specific figures on many important items, claiming such things had to be addressed in person and on a case by case basis. See for example Belgrove, A Treatise upon Husbandry of Planting, 24–7. 39. Sainsbury, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574–1660, Vol. I, 292. 40. Bennett, 'Peter Hay, Proprietary Agent in Barbados, 1636–1641,' 16. 41. Menard, Sweet Negotiations, ch. 3, 21. 42. An island near West Africa, which along with Madeira and the Canary Islands, was perhaps the first European colony to produce a single cash crop for European consumption using primarily African slave labor. See Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society, ch. 1. 43. Israel, Empires and Entrepots: The Dutch, the Spanish Monarchy, and the Jews, 1585–1713, 417–48. 44. Klooster, 'Communities of Port Jews and their Contacts in the Dutch Atlantic World.' 45. Schreuder, 'The Influence of the Dutch Colonial Trade on Barbados in the Seventeenth Century,' 47; see also Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil, ch. 3. 46. Klooster, 'Networks of Colonial Empires.' 47. The most popular of these early historical works being Dunn, Sugar and Slaves, 60–2; however, several other works repeat these claims. This line of argument is originally based upon Ligon's testimony and another anonymous manuscript created around 1670 entitled 'Some Observations on the Island of Barbados' (PRO, C.O. 1/21, no. 170). The manuscript was transcribed and published by Jerome Handler in The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society 34, no. 3 (1973). See also Harlow, A History of Barbados, 1625–1685, 40. More recently, Russ Menard's Sweet Negotiations argues against a large Dutch presence in regards to the financing of the new ingenios, and in supplying the colony with black slaves. These arguments for limiting the Dutch presence can also be found in Schwartz, Tropical Babylons, esp. ch. 9. Conversely, Yda Schreuder has published a series of articles in The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society emphasizing the Dutch role in Barbados. See in particular Schreuder, 'The Influence of the Dutch Colonial Trade on Barbados in the Seventeenth Century'; Schreuder, 'Evidence from the Notarial Protocols'; and Schreuder, 'A True Global Community.' Of particular note here is Schreuder's discovery that many Sephardic Jews relied upon English aliases when conducting business in Barbados, hence making them invisible in the island's early record books. See Schreuder, 'Evidence from the Notarial Protocols,' 69–70. Finally, on the contribution of Jewish merchants to English trade more generally, including their ability to evade the Navigation Acts, see Snyder, 'English Markets, Jewish Merchants, and Atlantic Endeavors.' 48. Schreuder, 'Evidence from the Notarial Protocols,' 63. 49. Smith, 'Disturbing the Peace in Barbados,' 40–1. He may have had business and property transactions in Barbados prior to these years, as this is merely the earliest recorded dates within the deed books at the Barbados National Archive. Records are not extant before 1640, and are scant for most of the subsequent decade. 50. Will of Constant Sylvester, Recopied Will Books, RB 6/8, 316–24, Barbados National Archive (BNA), Lazaretto, St. Michael, Barbados. Sylvester was also a member of the governor's council and had married the sister of Henry Walrond, once the island's acting governor and of a leading English family frequently mentioned in Ligon's History. Henry Walrond was the chief Justice of Common Pleas on the island and likely the son of Humphrey Walrond, one of the island's largest sugar planters during the time of Ligon's stay. See Will of Henry Walrond, Wills, RB 6/10, 333, BNA. 51. Recopied Deed Books, RB 3/2, 220, BNA. See also Menard, Sweet Negotiations, 62. The deed also mentions a Dutch merchant, John Berry, to whom Hilliard owed 1200 Dutch Gilders. 52. Between 1640 and 1660, Hilliard was involved in no less than 36 land deals on the island. See Deeds, Deeds Index and Counterdeeds Index, RB 3/43-44, BNA. On Hilliard as council member, see 'Extracts From the Council Books of Barbados,' October 13, 1641 to May 2, 1652. RB X10/33, BNA. Thomas Modyford was a Royalist émigré who quickly ascended the Barbados political ladder, becoming assemblyman, councilman, and even governor in due time. In 1664 he was assigned by King Charles II to be the governor of Jamaica, where he took a leading role in developing the plantation society of the nascent colony. See Dunn, Sugar and Slaves, chs 4–5, in particular pp. 81–2. 53. Mijers, 'A "Natural Partnership"'; Schreuder, 'Evidence from the Notarial Protocols,' 59; Ligon, History, 23. 54. When Courteen's men settled on Barbados in 1627, some went to the South American coast to procure Native American servants to help them establish their settlement. It is likely these Indians came from these colonies. See Harlow, A History of Barbados, 1625–1685, 5–6. 55. One Father Biet visited Drax on Barbados in 1651, who told him about the earliest days in 1627 when he and his fellow settlers lived in caves for shelter. See Handler, 'Father Antoine Biet's Visit to Barbados in 1654,' 69. 56. In 1647 James Drax was recruited by Gyles Sylvester (then in Amsterdam) to arbitrate a land dispute between he and his son Constant (then in Barbados). See Schreuder, 'Evidence from the Notarial Protocols,' 63. Also Constant's will stipulates that all products from his Barbadian plantations be consigned to Henry Drax of London, who was also the executor of Constant's estate there. See Wills, RB 6/8, 321, BNA. Furthermore, the first archival record of Sylvester in Barbados is from a sale between Drax and Thomas Middleton, which Sylvester oversaw. See Smith, 'Disturbing the Peace in Barbados,' 40. 57. Dunn, Sugar and Slaves, 58–9. 58. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, Vol. II, 4 (item no. 12). 59. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society, 66. 60. Ligon, History, 113–14, 155. 61. Ibid., 113–15. The point of having the overseer eat with the planter was to reinforce status-based differences between him and the rest of the workforce. This tactic was repeated in other planter instructions, including those of Henry Drax in 1679. 62. See Thompson, 'Henry Drax's Instructions on the Management of a Seventeenth-Century Barbadian Sugar Plantation.' Drax's instructions were later amended and reprinted within William Belgrove, A Treatise upon Husbandry or Planting. Belgrove ascribed authorship of the instructions to Drax, subtitling them Instructions for the Management of Drax-Hall (1679). See Thompson, 'Henry Drax's Instructions on the Management of a Seventeenth-Century Barbadian Sugar Plantation,' 565–70, for a detailed description of the relationship between these three sources. 63. Thompson, 'Henry Drax's Instructions on the Management of a Seventeenth-Century Barbadian Sugar Plantation,' 601–2. Attorneys were usually neighboring planters who agreed to periodically monitor an absentee's planter for a fee. The attorneys would also act on the planter's behalf in local legal and business arrangements, and keep a steady correspondence with the absentee planter about the plantation's state of affairs. By the eighteenth century this position had grown into a full-time occupation for a class of managerial workers. The most complete account of plantation attorneys can be found in Barry Higman, Plantation Jamaica 1750–1850. 64. Thompson, 'Henry Drax's Instructions on the Management of a Seventeenth-Century Barbadian Sugar Plantation,' 601. 65. Ibid., 592. 66. Ibid., 587. 67. Ibid., 600. Drax's commands are specifically that Loader 'eat at your table,' which would imply either staying with him or, at the very least, making frequent visits if Loader lived nearby. 68. Chief overseers were usually free, and almost exclusively white. There were a number of lesser overseer roles on plantations such as slave drivers, watchmen, and boiling house supervisors, which were often manned by black artisan slaves. This occurred more frequently in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century, after indentured servitude had dwindled in Barbados and the island's black population had risen to almost 80%. See Galenson, White Servitude in Colonial America: An Economic Analysis, esp. chs 8–9, for more specific information on this transformation. 69. Campbell, Some Early Barbadian History, 54. The Lucies all have names which signify a possible Jewish heritage. Jacob Lucie, the most famous Barbadian planter of the Lucie family, had siblings named Isaac, Elisha, Abraham, and Samuel. See Will of Elias Lucie, Wills, RB 6/40, 213, BNA. 70. Luke Lucie power of attorney document. Deeds, RB 3/2, 475–7, BNA. 71. Luke Lucie power of attorney document. Deeds, RB 3/2, 475, BNA. 72. Charles Jennens is also given permission to find and hire another manager, should De Hem die or 'depart from the island.' This departure clause is unusual amongst these documents, and is never mentioned within contracts that contain primarily English individuals. 73. The second half of Luke Lucie's document is a formal renunciation of the powers formerly granted to Thomas Moore, and both Jennens and De Hem are given power to 'eject and expel' Moore from the plantation. There is also an issue of a large outstanding debt owed to Lucie by Moore, which is likely damages suffered by Lucie through Moore's neglect, incompetence, or embezzlement. 74. Will of Elias Lucie, Wills, RB 6/40, 213, BNA. Jacob Lucie was the son of Elias Lucie, who lived in Barbados and possessed a large estate there. In his will, Elias stated his wish that Jacob 'come home' to Barbados, when his 'apprenticeship' was finished if not earlier, to help his newly widowed mother manage the estate. Jacob Lucy in time became a substantial London merchant, and was Assistant Director of the Royal African Company for several terms during the 1680s. 75. Will of Seger De Hem, Wills, RB 6/10, 187. BNA. 76. Anon, 'Historic Sites Re-Visited – I: Andrews Plantation, St. Joseph; Its Cemetery and History,' 93–4. 77. From the will it is unclear where in the Atlantic world De Hem's sister resides. 78. Thompson, 'Henry Drax's Instructions on the Management of a Seventeenth-Century Barbadian Sugar Plantation,' 570. 79. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series. Vol. VII, 224 (item no. 802.) The council also claimed 'personal inability, and other scandalous circumstances' as reasons to keep Harwood off the council. This is despite the fact that the lieutenant governor at the time called Harwood a 'loyal and honest man.' See Thompson, 'Henry Drax's Instructions on the Management of a Seventeenth-Century Barbadian Sugar Plantation,' 570. 80. Will of Richard Harwood, Wills, RB 6/41, 334. BNA. 81. Handler, 'Father Antoine Biet's Visit to Barbados in 1654,' 69. Many of the Jewish sugar-makers in Pernambuco had French sugar-making connections, although none to Rouen in particular are documented. See Wiznitzer, Jews In Colonial Brazil, 85, 111. 82. On Rouen's early leadership in refining see Stein, The French Sugar Business in the Eighteenth Century, 142–3. 83. Carr, Select Charters of Trading Companies, 1503–1707, 62–78, 70. 84. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society, 66. William Belgrove's account of how to operate a sugar mill also discusses this, allocating extra money for the purchasing of 'a Mill-Man, a Boiler, a Clayer, a Distiller, a Groom, two Carters, two Drivers, and a Watchman.' See Belgrove, A Treatise upon Husbandry of Planting, 41. 85. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society, 67. 86. Ligon, History, 52. 87. Handler, 'Father Antoine Biet's Visit to Barbados in 1654,' 67. 88. Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil, 60, 137; Firth, The Narrative of General Venables, 39, 47, 99, 124. See also Anon, 'The English Conquest of Jamaica, 1655–1656.' As conversos, these Accostas must have, at least publically, retained their Christian confession while in Jamaica. 89. Firth, The Narrative of General Venables, 39. Securing the cattle was essential if the English were to adequately provision their army. 90. Anon, 'The English Conquest of Jamaica,' 11. By stating that the slave was 'Angolan' it would have meant that he was from either Brazil or Portuguese Angola. 91. Thompson, 'Henry Drax's Instructions on the Management of a Seventeenth-Century Barbadian Sugar Plantation,' 586. 92. Ibid., 593. 93. Ibid., 593. 94. Ibid., 593. 95. See for example Shapin, Social History of Truth, ch. 8; Roberts, 'The Death of the Sensous Chemist'; Schaffer, 'Experimenters' Techniques, Dyers' Hands, and the Electric Planetarium.' 96. John Houghton, 'Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade,' June 17, 1698. Republished as Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade (1728) Vol. III, p. 303. Accessed through Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO). http://gdc.gale.com/products/eighteenth-century-collections-online. This treatise was largely based upon Ligon's History of Barbados. 97. Quoted in Barrett, 'Caribbean Sugar-production Standards in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,' 161. 98. 'The Earl of Carlisle's Patent unto Capt. James Holdip sent him by Phoenix of London,' 1629/30. Hay Papers, Huntington Library. Reproduced in RB X10/15, BNA and in The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society 35, no. 4 (1978): 306–7. 99. Anon, 'Diary of Henry Colt' (1631), reprinted in Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society 21, no. 1 (1953): 12. 100. Campbell, Some Early Barbadian History, 42. 101. Deeds, Index and Counterindex, RB 3/43-44, BNA. 102. Harlow, A History of Barbados, 1625–1685, 40. 103. Deeds, RB 3/1, 536, BNA. 104. Richard Dunn mentions this deed in Sugar and Slaves, stating that the 25 servants were to go to Holdip for payment of the land. Dunn's citation comes from a reprinted version of this deed found in Pares, Merchants and Planters, which is a paraphrase by Pares and is incorrect. The correct version can be found in Deeds, RB 3/1, 536-8, BNA, and is also reprinted in Anon, 'Applewaite of Barbados, Pt. II,' 11. 105. This type of sharecropping arrangement was the norm in Brazil, and also existed to varying degrees in English sugar-making islands during this time. See for example Jeaffreson, A Young Squire in the Seventeenth Century, Vol. 1, from the Papers of Christopher Jeaffreson, 316. See also a case from early Jamaica, where one planter referred to the practice of grinding neighbors' canes as 'the custom here.' Letter from Jamaica, November 7, 1670. Heylar Manuscripts, 5.116, Somerset Record Office, Taunton, UK. 106. Deeds, RB 3/3, 574-7, BNA. 107. The original document also included a schedule which itemized all of the individual items (skimmers, sugar molds, ladles, etc.) needed to run the ingenio. This itinerary however has since been detached from the deed and is now missing. 108. William Hiliard for example, arranged a similar contract for his nephew Richard that same year, loaning him skilled servants for a period of time for use on the land sold to his nephew. This loaning of slaves was reflected in Richard's repayment terms. See Deeds, RB 3/3, 617–20, BNA. 109. Snow, Apopiroscopy, 2.