colony · Mesoamerica and the Caribbean

Providence Island colony

1630 CE – 1641 CE · capital New Westminster

Short-lived Puritan colony off the coast of Central America, a sister venture of New England that turned to privateering and slavery before Spain destroyed it.

Origins

The Providence Island Company, whose investors included the Earl of Warwick, John Pym and Lord Saye and Sele, settled the small island of Santa Catalina in 1630. It was meant as a godly Puritan colony in the Caribbean, planted with tobacco and cotton, and its leaders hoped it would outshine Massachusetts Bay.

Rule and society

The company governed from London through appointed governors and a council, with New Westminster as the main settlement. Crops failed to pay, so the colony turned to privateering against Spanish shipping and came to rely on enslaved Africans, who by 1641 outnumbered the English settlers. An enslaved revolt in 1638 was among the earliest in English America. Church life followed Puritan practice.

Decline and legacy

Spain saw the island as a pirate base on its treasure routes and attacked it, failing in 1635 and 1640 before capturing it in May 1641. The settlers were deported and the enslaved people seized. The company's leaders went on to play prominent parts on the Parliamentary side in the English Civil War.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Providence Island colony. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/providence-island-colony
MLA
“Providence Island colony.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/providence-island-colony. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Providence Island colony.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/providence-island-colony.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Providence Island colony’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/providence-island-colony (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻