Willoughbyland: England's Lost Colony

by Matthew Parker

At the beginning of the 1650s, wrecked by plague and civil war, England was in ruins. Yet shimmering on the horizon was a vision of paradise called Willoughbyland.

When Sir Walter Raleigh set out to South America to find the legendary city of El Dorado, he paved the way for an endless series of adventurers who would struggle against the harsh reality of South America’s wild jungles. Six decades later, when a group of English gentlemen expelled from England chose to establish a new colony there, they named the settlement in honor of its founder―Sir Francis Willoughby.

Located in the lush landscape between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, in what is now Suriname, Willougbyland experienced one of colonialism’s most spectacular rises. But as planters and traders followed explorers, and mercenaries and soldiers followed political dissidents, the one-time paradise became a place of terror and cruelty, of sugar and slavery. A microcosm of the history of empire, this is the hitherto untold story of that fateful colony.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

294 pages, Hardcover

First published August 13, 2015

About the author

I'm the author of a number of books including Monte Cassino, about the Western Allies' hardest battle against Germany in WWII, Panama Fever/Hell's Gorge, the epic story of the building of the Panama Canal, The Sugar Barons, about the rise and fall of the British West Indian sugar empire, Willoughbyland, the story of the forgotten English colony in Suriname, exchanged with the Dutch for New York and Goldeneye, about the influence of Jamaica on Ian Fleming's creation of James Bond. My new book is called One Fine Day: Britain's Empire on the brink. It is a snapshot of one day - 29 September 1923 - when the British Empire reached what would turn out to be its maximum territorial extent. It was the sole global superpower, but it was also an empire beset with debts and doubts.

When not reading, writing or staring out of the window, I love making sushi, pubs, growing stuff and visiting remote places.

I'm a member of the Authors Cricket Club, and wrote a chapter of A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon. I am also a contributor to the Oxford Companion to Sweets.

I live in East London with my wife, three children and annoying dog.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting and detailed account of the lost English colony in what's now in present day Suriname which was settled and then lost to the Dutch in the wars of 1665-67 over economic trade and colonisation

[Grumpus · Rating 1 out of 5]

The grumpus23 (23-word commentary) Could not finish it. Everything jumped and felt disjointed. I never got into anything like a chronological flow. Very disappointed in this one.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned from this book about an area close to U.S. but seldom written about. When we think of an English Lost Colony we usually think of Roanoke, but here is the story of a second lost colony. You will find a connection between the two. It was very easy to read so do not be intimidated by a non-fiction history book.

[Dan Vine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very readable account of a fascinating episode in British colonial history

[Tony Laplume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matthew Parker presents a fascinating cross-section of history in Willoughbyland, although there's the impression that's perhaps it's the cross-section itself, rather than the subject, that lends the book it's appeal.

At times it seems Parker is most attracted to the colony as a kind of reclamation project, the best reflection of English activities at a time of great social upheaval (Cromwell) that left bitter divisions everywhere in its wake, including the eponymous colony.

For American readers, it's a rare window into early colonial lore not connected merely to explorers or revolution. It's also a reminder of the considerable relevant history of the period: Willoughbyland was in fact traded with the Dutch for New York.

Parker includes some fascinating characters in his account. Sir Walter Raleigh is the best known of them, but how his activities intersect this narrative are perhaps the most interesting part of the whole book. He also writes about the comparatively obscure Aphra Behn, who comes off as far more compelling than her lack of current legacy would suggest (perhaps because her literary works do not ultimately stand the test of time). Where Parker fails with her, really, is admitting that history doesn't generally acknowledge her actual presence at the colony, but then he proceeds to act as if it were fact, once he presents a case to the contrary.

If there's a real weakness to the book, it's that Parker seems to summarize all his material. It has the cumulative effect of diminishing its significance. Reading it you're convinced that he's unearthed one of the great unknown and lamentable experiments in the New World. But then you begin to wonder...the colony itself lasted only a few years, really, and Parker spends all this time justifying its brief English incarnation.

But again, this is a story, a cautionary tale, about how even the most fortuitous things can be lost if not appreciated for what they are, if all the players are too caught up in their petty squabbles to get out of their own way. Nothing great happened here because there simply wasn't enough time. Everyone thought the important things were happening someplace else. Everything could've been very different very easily...

So, a fascinating read, all considered.

[Alvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of greed and glory, torture and tenacity, espionage and enterprise, slavery and stupidity. The book goes into more detail than I wanted about various military battles between bloodthirsty imperial powers, but the economic and social history is fascinating: the astounding death toll from disease, the cruelty of sugar plantations, the war between Roundheads and Cavaliers, and the amazing career of lady spy and authoress Aphra Benn are all included. English colonialism wasn't just evil, it was insane!

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book hoping it would be similar to Grann's:' The Lost City of Z.' Willoughbyland is a fairly narrow subject and he did alot of research putting it together. But I found the story had no flow but got lost in the details, it read like a HS history book with no attempt to engage the reader with any drama, adventure or suspense. I thought the characters were cardboard one dimensional. If you like your history dry and with numerous details and dates you will enjoy this book.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part historical mystery and part melancholy look at the darker underside of imperialism, this book looks at the origins of Suriname in an English colony established during the chaotic days of the English Civil War and its aftermath.  When one hears about lost colonies, there are several ways that a colony can be lost.  The colony could have been lost in the sense that colonies were traded among imperial powers after wars, where diplomats would have to gauge the relative worth of a city like New York or Madras against an island in the Caribbean or off the coast of South America.  That is one way in which Suriname was lost to the British as a result of one of the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17th century.  Additionally, a colony could be lost to time in the way that the forest had swallowed up all remnants of mansions and fields so that nothing remained of the physical culture of the plantations that the English sought to establish there, and in that way as well Willougbyland has been lost, in that very little of it exists except in the memory of historians of imperialism [1].

This book is a relatively normal size for its scope (a bit more than 250 pages) but is written by someone who does not believe that the reader knows much about the context of efforts by Europeans in the aftermath of discovery to place colonies in the Guianas, which taken at their largest span range from the Orinoco River to the Amazon River, including two independent countries (Guyana and Suriname), one European colony (Cayenne/French Guiana), and parts of two other countries (Venezuela and Brazil).  The first part of this book focuses on the discovery of the Guianas and early myths about El Dorado and a supposed large lake that exists in the middle of the territory, about which there is still considerable debate because the interior regions remain so poorly known and so sparsely inhabited except by large and dangerous plants and animals of various kinds.  After this the author discusses the political divide between royalist and Roundhead in England as well as islands like Barbados, followed by a discussion of the dissension and spycraft that included noted early woman writer Aphra Behn and a Dutch attack that won the area for them as a result of the Treaty of Breda, and the aftermath of the war for the various people involved, some of whom didn't make it out alive.

There is a strong sense of melancholy that runs through this book.  Part of the reason for that is because the author himself is of resolutely contemporary opinions against slavery, and the economic development of Suriname was heavily dependent on the labor of slaves.  To reflect upon the misery inflicted upon people over the course of centuries of oppression is certainly a melancholy one.  There is also a sense of melancholy because so much death was focused on a fragile (if cruel) civilization that as left so few traces to the present day.  As someone who has often reflected upon the melancholy beauty of ruins which have left little trace of what were once great cities inhabited by worthwhile and interesting people--like that of Colosse in what is now Turkey--I found this book to be one that was a lengthy reflection upon ruins and loss, not only the loss of life but of freedom, wealth, and even the memory that one had lived there.  The English colonists whose lust for property and whose interest in slavery caused such misery become figures worth lamenting as well, leading to an overall tone of sadness at a lost age where what was seen as a paradise became a hell.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...

[Ken Sampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

[5 Apr 2017] My first Matthew Parker book and despite the subject being a bit niche; I was not disappointed. An interesting book about the colony of Suriname in the Guiana area of South America. Extremely well researched and well written. It is an easy and enjoyable read. It covers the discovery, failed attempts to settle, the influence of civil war back home, success and eventual decline. All very well told. He starts by describing the mythical 'El Dorado' as the main reason the British were keen to get in there and how they built a democratic country with some real characters in-charge. The book's title 'Willoughbyland: England's lost Colony' reflects the influence of Francis, Lord Willoughby - 5th Baron of Parham and the fact that British involvement in this area is now all, but forgotten. Along the way we hear tales of Slavery, Tobacco and Sugar farming, Europeans adjusting to the tropic, the countryside around the Amazon delta and the relationship with the Indigenous peoples. It includes stories of real characters - Sir Walter Raleigh and strange playwright Aphra Johnson or Behn. It is less than three-hundred pages with some useful maps, drawings and a small number of photographs. However, I was left wondering whether - apart by the author - it was ever called Willoughbyland by anybody else? I also thought that, apart from the gentry, the daily grind of the ordinary settlers did not come across so well and, of course, it was written from a Colonist point of view - the voice of the indigenous people - who saw their land invaded remain pretty silent. Also, without being pedantic at the time described it was Great Britain (not exclusively England) that drove colonial expansion. For instance, the estate manager was young Cornishman, John Trefry (who wouldn't have thought of himself as English). All that said, it remains a very well research, well written and informative book about a previously forgotten part of our history.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever hear of Willoughbyland? (I don't mean the "A Stop at Willoughby" episode of the Twilight Zone.) Neither had I. In Willoughbyland: England's Lost Colony Matthew Parker tells the story of the founding, flourishing, and eventual fall of a paradise on the coast of South America in what is today know as Suriname.

The story begins with the tale of El Dorado, the legendary lost city of gold. Sir Walter Raleigh (whose name the author insists on spelling 'Ralegh') believed the mythical city existed and was located somewhere in the area. He headed an exploration to find it, and while he didn't, his published accounts of the trip and the area encouraged other adventurers to explore it.

Years pass and the English Civil War intervenes. Enter Francis Lord Willoughby who as a Royalist ends up fleeing the Parliamentarians in England for Barbados as the King's governor there. Willoughby sends a party to the South American coast to explore the Suriname river. The area holds promise and the English begin to settle there. The Parliament fleet catches up with Willoughby at Barbados. The Royalists are expelled from the island, but are allowed to move to the new colony in Suriname: Willoughbyland.

The colony thrives as a sugar producer, but at the cost of slavery. Eventually the English are at war with the Dutch and while the English conquer New Netherland (what is now New York, Delaware and New Jersey) the Dutch conquer Willoughbyland. When peace is declared, the English offer to exchange New Netherland for Willoughbyland, but it is decided that each country will keep their conquests. Thus New Netherland becomes New York and Willoughbyland becomes Suriname.

Full disclosure: I received an advanced reader copy of this book.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the time I read this book I was watching reruns of the Twilight Zone on TV and had just seen, again, the episode 'A Stop at Willoughby' and was impressed by how much the search for an illusory 'golden age' in the past of that episode matched the origin stories of the explorations of the area in South America that was briefly called 'Willoughbyland' and later Suriname in the quest for El Dorado. Both 'A stop at Willoughby' and 'El Dorade' were legends, myths and both brought only death to those who sought them.

Matthew Parker has written as good a book as it is possible to write about a place which was never even a real colony and only lasted as an 'English' outpost for less than twenty years. It isn't really an English or Dutch (who ruled the land in various ways until 1975) story, but a story of the people of Suriname who were ruthlessly exploited under the English and Dutch. Matthew Parker does not soft-peddle the gruesome realities of life on the sugar plantations (he is after all the author of an excellent book on 'Suger Barons' on the major owners of sugar plantations in Jamaica). But I can't help feeling that the the almost irrelevant antics of some disaffected Royalists and their attempts to create an alternative to Cromwell's Commonwealth are over represented in this chronicle. A proper look at the shoddy empires of Britain or the Netherlands in the Caribbean and South America might have been a better use of his time and produced a more interesting and useful book.

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Willoughbyland: England's Lost Colony was a great setting as much English history of the Americas is focused on the Northern colonies being North America and Canada. England's Lost Colony refers to Suriname called Willoughbyland after Lord Willoughby the governor of Barbados who proposed settling Suriname in South America.

The book goes from the earliest English exploration of the area right up to settlement and its eventual takeover by the Dutch. What fascinated me was European accounts of the jungle, wildlife and myths of El Dorado as this would have been many Europeans first experience out of a temperate climate zone.

While the book has many fascinating subjects contained in it, there are also a lot of dark subjects such as conflict with local native populations and slavery of Africans on the sugar plantations. Ironically the African slaves would outlive their English masters living out in the jungle and causing the Dutch to resort to brutal punishment to combat the Maroons (escaped African slaves living in communities in the jungle).

Overall i enjoyed this book and further research Suriname because of it.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Willoughbyland: England's Lost Colony. Matthew Parker. Thomas Dunne Books, 2017. 313 pages.

Having recently read Keith Thomson's Paradise of the Damned, the account of Sir Walter Raleigh's obsession with the legends of El Dorado, the golden city of South America, this book popped up on my radar. Raleigh's stories and expeditions inspired many other English adventurers over the next several decades, including Sir Francis Willoughby. In 1650, Lord Willoughby, a royalist concieved a plan to colonize the land between the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers, present day Suriname, both as a refuge for fellow royalists escaping parliamentarian rule in England and as a profit-making venture. He recruited hundreds of settlers, including planters from Barbados and Jews who had earlier settled in Brazil. The colonists discovered a world beyond their dreams: vast tracks of thick jungle, an area of immense biodiversity including 800 tree species, 1,600 bird species, 300 species of catfish alone, and animals like anteaters, armadillos, caiman, and manatees. Even in 2013, an expedition documented thousands of species of animals, including 60 never before identified. By 1663, there were 1,000 white colonists successfully producing and exporting sugar and tobacco. They enjoyed a degree of religious tolerance found in few places in Europe at the time and were ruled by an assembly of planters that voted on proposals offered by the governor and executive council. The colony largely coexisted peacefully with their indigenous neighbors. Unfortunately, the economic success was built on the enslavement of Africans, and the Barbadian planters imposed their notoriously brutal form of slavery on the enslaved. The colony was captured by the Dutch during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667, but it was nominally re-captured by the British a few months later. By that time, there wasn't much left of the colony, and Suriname was officially swapped for New Amsterdam (now New York City) in a treaty seven years later. Today, there is almost no trace of the colony, except for the descendants of those enslaved people, and the jungle has swallowed Willoughbyland.

[Andrew Macfarlane · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting enough book. The first part about the idea of eldorado was interesting. The machinations in the colony of various people in the 17th century a little less so, possibly due to the story have to switch time and place so much. It does jump around a bit in time and because the major decisions affecting its survival were made in other parts of the caribbean or in Europe it swaps location a lot and i didnt feel the book got to grips with the resulting confusion. Despite a couple of plates showing the plantations you get no picture of day to say life or the actual size and layout of the place

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this read on English exploration of the Guiana coast during the 1600s. It was interesting to learn how several countries fought over this territory and their motives for doing so. This book is chock-full of fascinating history and is easy to read. It left me wanting to follow up on related subjects such as El Dorado and England's civil war during this time. As a lover of maps, I was thrilled with those included of Barbados and Willoughby's colony on the Suriname river.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Popular history the way it should be written. I kept seeing this book on display at my library and finally picked it up. It is a pretty fast paced account of an English colony in what is now Suriame. I knew nothing about this little chapter of English history. Parker does a great job of explaining how events in the wider world greatly impacted the colony, eventually turning it over to the Dutch who held it until the 1970s. First few chapters dragged a bit but otherwise a quick read.

[Natsume Faiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Willoughbyland a name that I never heard before. This book gave a history of lost English colony in Suriname before it was ceded to Dutch. It told the difficulty of English people who migrate from England to a New Land and face with various diseases, native tribes, harshness environemnt, plague and a new plantation.

This book gave an information of unheard English colony abroad far from England.

[Suzanne Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 out of 5 stars
Very interesting read
If you enjoy history, you should read this book.

[Peter Z. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's one giant shaggy dog story. If you want to save some time just start at chapter 15 or so. Such potential.

[George Foord · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved most of the book but found the last few chapters pretty boring and confusing

[Martin Willoughby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating.

[Theron Nissen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice overview enjoyable read.

[Hazel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed in this one, expected so much more!

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting history of a very obscure English colony in Surinam, established in the 1500s and surrendered to the Dutch in the 1600s in return for New York.

[Pirate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gem of a book about a subject I had never heard of, a rare foray of an Englishman actually establishing a colony on South American shores. Francis, Lord Willoughby, exiled from Barbados after opting for the Royalist cause created it in what is now Surinam and whilst his one brief visit there was not one he would recall with joy, it flourished for a while -- it proved a haven for a Jewish community who were being oppressed elsewhere on the continent and the oldest synagogue in South America was constructed there -- until a mix of old Civil War discord between Cavaliers and puritanical Roundheads sprang up and the Dutch took measures to eradicate the irritant. Lively read, great accounts of the visionary but ill-fated Walter Raleigh sets the scene, he appeared more loved on that continent than back home, and a series of vivid accounts of the vain search for the mythical El Dorado mainly by Spanish conquistadors. There is also a fascinating account of England's first female playwright Aphra Behn (nee Johnson) passing some time there with the suspicion being she was a secret agent sent to the colony, and taking up with the son of a former Cromwellian spymaster. Her work 'Oroonoko' gives some valuable insights into the colony, plus she exposed the mistreatment of the imported slaves, or the 'Maroons' whose descendants are still in Surinam. But as Parker opines in the final line of the book the Maroons legacy has endured not the colonisers. 'Instead of slavery it is rebellion-bought freedom and dignity that has endured.'

[Emesskay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! This was a wonderful, eye-opening book. I will admit to knowing very little about the early history of any country in South America, and absolutely nothing about Suriname. It was fascinating to read about how this country came to be colonized by the British, and the efforts expended by Britain to maintain the colony. The book is exellently researched and written in a very engaging style. Athough this is a history book, the author manages to convey some of the drama and tensions that affected the colony. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history of the Americas, or the British Empire, or anyone who is just curious. It really is an excellent read.

Full disclosure, I did receive a free copy of the book through Goodreads Giveaways. It isn't a book I would normally have considered, otherwise. I am glad I won it, because it was a really interesting book on a subject I did not know much about.

[Paul Kerr · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really engaging read on a subject that I would not have thought would contain much initial interest. The author quite quickly invokes a sense of mystery and real adventure as party after party of intrepid 17th century adventurers try to tame a distinctly hostile and dangerous corner of South America. The possibilities of success for the colonists are palatable, as is their inevitable downfall brought on by a combination of slavery, greed, aggression and politics. The fact that even after all these centuries the traces of such colonists are all but gone, with no one stepping into the void, escalates the ambitiousness of those early explorers.

[Julian Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A curious and extremely well told tale of a little known British outpost in Suriname.

History probably doesn’t get more strange than how this remote, privately controlled part of England came into being and existed for a decade and a half in the mid-1600s. Stuffed with colourful characters, riddled with politics – both local and from back home (covering as it does the Restoration period) – this is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Apparently nothing remains of the settlement today having been reclaimed by jungle, however, it will forever be preserved in this quirky slice of history and I am pleased to have discovered it through these pages.

[Tasneem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Won this as a Goodreads Giveaway.
A solid 4.5 stars. I adore non-fiction and so this was just up my street. Compelling writing, great pictures and paintings, and a thoroughly absorbing history.

[Alphonsemacd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous book, well written and a fabulous history of a little know part of the world.