Editing Saint Helena (section)

===East India Company (1658–1815)===
{{Main|East India Company}}
[[File:Thornton, St Helena.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|left|''A View of the Town and Island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean belonging to the [[East India Company|British East India Company]]'', engraving, {{Circa|1790}}]]

In 1657, [[Oliver Cromwell]] granted the [[East India Company]] (EIC) a charter to govern Saint&nbsp;Helena. The following year, the company decided to fortify the island and settle it with planters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sthelena.se/history/cron.txt|title=Historical Chronology |publisher=St. Helena Foundation|access-date=21 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716231341/http://www.sthelena.se/history/cron.txt |archive-date=16 July 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> A theory, which had its origins in the early 20th century, that the early settlers included many who had lost their homes in the 1666 [[Great Fire of London]], was shown to be a myth in 1999.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schulenburg |first1=Alexander |title=Myths of Settlement – St Helena and the Great Fire of London |url=https://www.friendsofsthelena.com/upload/files/St_Helena_and_the_Great_Fire_of_London.pdf |publisher=Friends of St Helena |access-date=8 January 2021 |date=1999}}</ref>

The first governor, Captain John Dutton, arrived in 1659, making Saint&nbsp;Helena one of Britain's earliest colonies outside Europe, North America and the Caribbean. A fort and houses were built: Jamestown had been founded, "in the narrow valley between steep cliffs".<ref name="smithsonianmag.com">{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/journey-st-helen-home-napoleon-last-days-180971638/|title=A Journey to St. Helena, Home of Napoleon's Last Days|access-date=18 March 2021}}</ref>

After the [[Stuart Restoration|Restoration]] of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of [[England]], [[Scotland]] and [[Ireland]] in 1660, the EIC received a [[royal charter]], giving it the sole right to fortify and colonise the island. The fort was renamed James Fort and the town was called [[Jamestown, Saint Helena|Jamestown]], in honour of the [[Duke of York]], later [[King James II]].<ref name="E. A. B. 494"/>

Between January and May 1673, the [[Dutch East India Company]] seized the island, but British reinforcements restored EIC control. The island was fortified with about 230 gun turrets.<ref name="smithsonianmag.com"/>

The British government sent some settlers and gave them land that they could farm,<ref name="smithsonianmag.com"/> but the company found it hard to attract enough settlers, despite advertisements in London and free tracts of land. By 1670, the population was only 66, including slaves.<ref name="A BRIEF HISTORY">{{cite web|url=http://sainthelenaisland.info/briefhistory.htm|title=A Brief History |publisher=Saint Helena Island |access-date=18 March 2021}}</ref> Also unrest and rebellion occurred among the inhabitants. Ecological problems, such as deforestation, soil erosion, vermin, and drought, led Governor Isaac Pyke to suggest in 1715 that the population be moved to [[Mauritius]], but that was not acted upon. The company continued to subsidise the community because of the island's strategic location. A census in 1723 recorded 1,110 inhabitants, including 610 slaves.<ref name="A BRIEF HISTORY"/>
 
In the peak era, about 1,000 ships per year stopped there, leaving the governor to try to police the numerous visitors and to limit the consumption of [[arrack]], a distilled alcoholic drink made from potatoes. There were two mutinies, perhaps fueled by alcohol. Because Jamestown was "too raucous with its taverns and brothels", St Paul's Cathedral was built outside the town.<ref name="theculturetrip.com">{{cite web|url=https://theculturetrip.com/africa/articles/a-visit-to-st-helena-one-of-the-worlds-remotest-islands/ |title=A Visit to St Helena, One of the World's Remotest Islands |date=18 December 2019 |access-date=18 March 2021}}</ref>

Eighteenth-century governors tried to tackle the island's problems by planting trees, improving fortifications, eliminating corruption, building a hospital, tackling the neglect of crops and livestock, controlling the consumption of alcohol, and introducing legal reforms. The island enjoyed a lengthy period of prosperity from about 1770. Captain [[James Cook]] visited the island in 1775 on the final leg of his second circumnavigation of the world. [[Saint James' Church, Jamestown|St. James' Church]] was built in Jamestown in 1774, and [[Plantation House, Saint Helena|Plantation House]] in 1791–92; the latter has since been the official residence of the governor.

[[Edmond Halley]] visited Saint Helena on leaving the [[University of Oxford]] in 1676, and set up an astronomical [[observatory]] with a {{convert|7.3|m|ft|adj=mid|-long}} [[aerial telescope]], intending to study the stars of the [[Southern Hemisphere]].<ref>[http://www.g4g4.com/pMyCD5/HISTORY/GAZ2.DOC Gazetteer – p. 7. Monuments in France – page 338] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716083646/http://www.g4g4.com/pMyCD5/HISTORY/GAZ2.DOC |date=16 July 2011}}</ref> The site of this telescope is near [[Saint Matthew, Hutt's Gate|Saint Mathew's Church]] at Hutt's Gate in the [[Longwood, Saint Helena|Longwood]] district. The {{convert|680|m|ft|adj=mid|-high}} hill there is called Halley's Mount.

Throughout that period, Saint Helena was an important [[List of ports of call of the British East India Company|port of call of the EIC]]. [[East Indiaman|East Indiamen]] would stop there on the return leg of their voyages to British India and China. At Saint Helena, ships could replenish supplies of water and provisions and, during wartime, form convoys that would sail under the protection of vessels of the [[Royal Navy]].

[[James Cook]]’s ship {{HMS|Endeavour}} anchored and resupplied off the coast of Saint Helena in May 1771 on its return from the European discovery of the east coast of Australia and the rediscovery of New Zealand.<ref>{{cite book |title =The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery, vol. I:The Voyage of the Endeavour 1768–1771|editor-last=Beaglehole | editor-first=J.C. | editor-link=John Beaglehole | page = 468| year =1968 | publisher =Cambridge University Press | oclc=223185477}}</ref>

The British brought an estimated 25,000 slaves from west Africa to the island, in addition to the 3,000,000 they transported to the New World.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Neel |first=Annina van |date=2024-03-27 |title=Scraping away generations of forgetting: my fight to honour the Africans buried on St Helena |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/27/scraping-away-generations-of-forgetting-my-fight-to-honour-the-africans-buried-on-st-helena |access-date=2024-07-19 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The importation of slaves was made illegal in 1792, but the horrific conditions of slavery on St Helena were not abolished until 27 May 1839, when the 'Ordinance For the Abolition of Slavery in the Island of St Helena' was enacted.<ref>{{cite web |title=SLAVERY ON ST HELENA |url=http://sainthelenaisland.info/slavery.htm#:~: |website=sainthelenaisland.info}}</ref> Rupert's Valley was the embarkation area for slaves; in 2008, when the road to the airport was being built, over 9,000 skeletal remains of slaves were uncovered in a mass burial area. They were reburied en masse in 2022 without ceremony of any kind.<ref>PBS POV S36 Ep2 "The Story of Bones" 2023</ref> Governor Robert Patton (1802–1807) recommended that the company import workers from China to supplement the rural workforce. Many were allowed to stay, and their descendants became integrated into the population. In 1810, Chinese labourers began arriving, and by 1818, there were 650 in St Helena.<ref name="A BRIEF HISTORY"/> An 1814 census recorded 3,507 people on the island. Many of the labourers were allowed to stay, though the need for their services had reduced by 1836.