g against the new regime
introduced by Lord Albemarle:--"The once flourishing island of Jamaica
is likely to be utterly undone by the irregularities of some needy
persons lately set in power. Many of the most considerable inhabitants
are deserting it, others are under severe fines and imprisonments from
little or no cause.... The provost-marshal has been dismissed and an
indebted person put in his place; and all the most substantial officers,
civil and military, have been turned out and necessitous persons set up
in their room. The like has been done in the judicial offices, whereby
the benefit of appeals and prohibitions is rendered useless. Councillors
are suspended without royal order and without a hearing. Several persons
have been forced to give security not to leave the island lest they
should seek redress; others have been brought before the council for
trifling offences and innumerable fees taken from them; money has been
raised twenty per cent. over its value to defend creditors. Lastly, the
elections have been tampered with by the indebted provost-marshal, and
since the Duke of Albemarle's death are continued without your royal
authority."[494] The death of Albemarle, indeed, at this opportune time
was the greatest service he rendered to the colony. Molesworth was
immediately commanded to return to Jamaica and resume authority. The
duke's system was entirely reversed, and the government restored as it
had been under the administration of Sir Thomas Lynch. Elletson was
removed from the council and from his position as chief justice, and
Bernard returned in his former place. All of the rest of Albemarle's
creatures were dismissed from their posts, and the supporters of Lynch's
regime again put in control of a majority in the council.[495] This
measure of plain justice was one of the last acts of James II. as King
of England. On 5th November 1688 William of Orange landed in England at
Torbay, and on 22nd December James escaped to France to live as a
pensioner of Louis XIV. The new king almost immediately wrote to Jamaica
confirming the reappointment of Molesworth, and a commission to the
latter was issued on 25th July 1689.[496] Molesworth, unfortunately for
the colony, died within a few days,[497] and the Earl of Inchiquin was
appointed on 19th September to succeed him.[498] Sir Francis Watson,
President of the Council in Jamaica, obeyed the instructions of William
III., although he was a partizan of Albemarle; ye