Monday, 24 July 2006
A Brief History of Lundy Island
There is evidence that Lundy Island was lived on in the Neolithic period, although whether these people were permanent residents or made regular visits to the island is not known. Flintwork and pottery have been found there, as well as Celtic gravestones. There is also evidence that in early medieval times a monastery was built there.
The earliest recorded lord of Lundy was a Sir Jordan de Marisco, but, during his reign, Henry II forfeited Marisco's ownership and gave the island to the Knights Templars. It is difficult to ascertain when this happened and why, but considering the Marisco family's later behaviour, perhaps Henry II was worried about what they were up to. Also, Lundy Island would be a good refuge base for the Knights Templars, who were a major maritime force at this time.
The Mariscos, however, refused to give up their home, despite attempts to cut the island off from necessary supplies. This is possibly what turned William de Marisco to his life of piracy, as boats leaving the Bristol Channel had to pass quite close to Lundy Island and would have been relatively easy pickings.
In 1242, William de Marisco and his accomplices were finally caught and Lundy Island was supposedly in the hands of the Knights Templars finally. Despite this, however, Lundy remained a place of shelter for pirates and privateers, which continued to cause problems for shipping traffic in the Bristol Channel and those living on the North Devon & Cornish coasts. It is unclear whether the Knights Templars ever made use of the island themselves.
Centuries passed and all that changed was which group of pirates were using Lundy Island as their base, until Charles I appointed a governor, Thomas Bushel, who held the island during the Civil War. Lundy was the last part of the King's lands to surrender to the Parliamentarians in 1647 after a siege that lasted for a year. It is believed that Lord Say and Sele then took the island for his own, and retreated there after disagreements with Oliver Cromwell. He may even have died there. What is clear is that the island soon returned once more to a state of lawlessness, including being looted and used as a base by French privateers.
In 1748, Barnstaple MP Thomas Benson obtained the lease of the island and used it for smuggling and shipping prisoners to for use as slaves, improving the state of the island (more on this in a later post!). However, he was found out and ruined, escaping to Portugal.
After this, the island at last began to gain some respectability, and was purchased in 1836 by William Hudson Heaven. Initially meant to be the family's summer home, they ended up moving there permanently in the early 1840s, as improvements, new buildings and the general running of the island became more expensive than originally thought. The collapse of the sugar market also troubled the family as most of Heaven's income came from plantations in Jamaica. However, Heaven retained some mainland property as a way to keep his right to vote, using this to resist attempts to bring the island under Devon magistrates' jurisdiction.
As this time, the island was given the nickname of the 'Kingdom of Heaven'.
His son, the Reverend Hudson Grosset Heaven was the next owner of the island and used a legacy from a relative to realise his dream of building a church on the island. St Helena's church, finished in 1896, can still be visited today. However, the family's financial situation became even worse...
In 1916 the Reverend Heaven died and his nephew Walter Charles Hudson Heaven became the new owner of Lundy. He was forced to sell the island in 1918 due to mounting debts. Unfortunately, the sale did not cover all that was owed and, bankrupt, he emigrated to Australia.
The Christie family next owned the island, but sold it to Martin Coles Harman in 1924. He may not have been a pirate, but he was certainly a character, proclaiming himself king of the island! He also took over the mail contract and issued the first Lundy stamps, a system that continues today.
He a little bit got carried away and began minting his own coins - the Half Puffin (equal to a halfpence) and the Puffin (equal to a penny). The House of Lords did not like this and in 1931 he was found to have violated the 1870 Coinage Act. He was fined five pounds and fifteen guineas, and the Puffin currency was stopped. The coins are now collectors' items.
Harman died in 1954 and his son inherited the island. Due to its special status, Lundy residents were not liable to pay UK taxes and whenever someone went between the island and the mainland they had to pass through customs!
This all changed when Harman's son died in 1968 and the National Trust bought Lundy Island in 1969. Lundy was leased to the Landmark Trust, and this arrangement is still in place today.
Websites used to research the history of Lundy include:
- Lundy Island article on Wikipedia.org
- Lundy Island, From A Handbook for Travellers in Devonshire (1879)
