DESPARD, Edward Marcus.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Signed expenses voucher for necessities given to the poor of Convention Town, Honduras. A remarkable survival documenting Despard's attempt to support British colonists in the Bay of Honduras. One Peter Henry is required to remit 142 Jamaican pounds to James Hutchison, one of Despard's deputies, for "sundry necessaries supplied the poorer People at Convention Town". This included the construction of a house for a George Rayburn, described as a "poor Loyalist". 0As part of the treaties that ended the American Revolutionary War, Great Britain agreed that its settlers in Central America would move to demarcated areas. Despard was made Superintendent of the Bay of Honduras to oversee the evacuation of the British "Shoremen" from the Mosquito Coast. As many as 2,100 Shoremen were displaced and settled in places like Convention Town, established approximately 15 miles up the Belize River. However, power and wealth remained concentrated among the slave-owning class of "Baymen", leaving many of the Shoremen in poverty.Hutchinson's mission to Convention Town was conducted between 8 March and 4 May 1787. Items listed include grindstones, hoes, bushels of corn, "4 dozen Musketts", and "Muscovado Sugar for the use of the Sick".Despard was made infamous in 1802, when he was arrested and tried for conspiring to assassinate King George III.

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