EFFINGHAM COUNTY, GA - BIOS  Captain William Lyford Sr

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THE MANY ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN WILLIAM LYFORD SR

THE MANY ADVENTURES
OF
CAPTAIN WILLIAM LYFORD SR.

Nothing is known of his ancestry. The only recorded
statement he made of his origin is questionable. According
to a bill-of-sale he wrote, William Lyford Sr. was of the
Island of Jamaica. At the time he made the statement, he
was on the lam for a large debt he owed in the Bahamas and
may have been trying to cover his tracks.  However, his
life after arriving on New Providence Island, Bahamas in
the early 1700s to marry Elizabeth, daughter of well-to-do
ship owner and high government official Captain William
Spatches, is well document in public records, right up to
his death some forty years later. These records reveal him
to be a tough, capable, determined man, as most mariners of
his day had to be.

1719. His son, William Jr. was born on New Providence
Island in the Bahamas.

4/13/1725. His daughter, Mary, was born on New Providence
Island.

1719 -1728. He owned and operated a commercial vessel
transporting goods between islands of the Caribbean.

11/10/1726. In a letter from to the British Council of
Trade and Plantations, Governor Phenney reported, "Last
night Mr. William Lyford mariner and one of our inhabitant
arrv’d here having privately got away from the Havana
[Cuba] in a small piragua [a canoe made by hollowing out a
tree trunk."

1728. His wife having died and faced with an inability to
satisfy an extremely large debt, William Lyford  moved with
his two children to Beaufort, SC, from where he continued
his commercial shipping venture.

1/6/1734. As recorded in records of St. Helena’s Church in
Beaufort, he married Ann Watt, spinster.

4/1/1737. In the same session of the SC Commons House of
Assembly, he was appointed commander of Fort Frederick in
Beaufort—South Carolina’s southernmost defense against the
Spanish. At the same time, he served as harbor pilot for
Port Royal.

4/6/1738. While on a commercial voyage to and from the
Caribbean, he observed several Spanish military vessels off
St. Augustine. Perceiving them to be a threat to the lower
colonies, he reported their presence to Beaufort’s senior
military officer on his return. Authorities in Georgia were
warned, and the colony was put in a state of readiness.

9/1741. He was placed in charge of South Carolina’s
provincial navy, which consists of two scout boats and two
partially built half-galleys. Upon completion of the first
of the two galleys, the Charles Town, he assumed command of
it.

7/1742. He sailed abroad the Charles Town in a small fleet
of South Carolina ships going to the aid of Georgia after
the Spanish invasion of St. Simons.

8/3/1742. At the battle scene, he had a strong disagreement
with Georgia's leader, James Oglethorp and wrote an angry
letter to the South Carolina governor complaining of it.

8/28/1742. The Charles Town, under his command, was part of
a fleet of vessels that shelled Castillo de San Marco, the
Spanish fort in St. Augustine. Also in the fleet was one of
Oglethorpe’s vessels, the Norfolk, commanded by Captain
David Cutler Braddock.

9/1742. Apparently impressed by what he saw of David Cutler
Braddock during their excursion against the Spanish, Lyford
placed him in command of the other half-galley, the
Beaufort.

11/7/1742. According to records of St. Helena’s church, his
daughter Mary married David Cutler Braddock.

1/28/1753. He successfully partitioned the provincial
government for better provisions for the men under his
command.

1743-1744. He and Braddock alternated in cruising the
Southeastern coast to keep the Spanish at bay.

9/9/1743. He was charged with trading with the enemy—the
Spanish—while on a prisoner swapping mission in St.
Augustine.

10/8-13/1743. In a lengthy hearing before the governor and
his council, several of his crew testified in his defense
until one declared that on their return trip to Charles
Town, the said Galley touched again at Port Royal and that
the deponent, together with Edward Hilton, carried to
Captain Lyford's house in Beaufort Town a chest in which he
had seen a great quantity of silver and that the said chest
was as heavy as they could manage. Lyford was ordered to be
held until he could be transported back to England for
trial.

12/13/1743. The commander of the Loo, the largest British
man-of-war stationed in America, wrote the following letter
in Lyford’s behalf to the governor. "Being informed by Mr.
Lyford, Pilot of his Majesty's Ship Loo, under my command,
your Honour has granted a warrant for apprehending him for
trading with the Spaniards. I think it a duty incumbent on
me, as it is for his Majesty's Service, to acquaint your
Honour and His Majesty's Council that he is actually Pilot
of His Majesty's Ship Loo, and that there is no man in the
Country that knows anything of the Bar or Harbour of Port
Royal, and His Majesty's Ship Loo under my command is fit
for Sea, and am well assured that there will be a 40 or 50
Gun ship from England for that place very soon, that cannot
properly get in without some able Pilot, to carry her, and
also to carry the Loo out, and to be continued at that
Port, for want of which His Majesty's Service, and also the
Service of this Province must greatly suffer, there being
no other person in the Province capable of taking charge of
any of His Majesty's Ships of that rate for that Port for
which reason I, in duty to His Majesty's Service must beg
your Honour & His Majesty's Council will be pleased to take
it into consideration, and if his Crime is not so bad but
if on his proper conceptions and his going bail for his
future Conduct, your Honour and his Majesty's honourable
Council will be pleased to release him, it being intirely
for his Majesty's Service in this Province."

The charge was dropped. On 2/5/1744, the Loo—without Lyford
aboard—ran aground on a Florida Key that now bears the name
Looe Key.

4/21/1744. In spite of his grave offense, he was granted
two lots in the heart of Beaufort, across from St. Helena’s
Church. By then, he had acquired two new vessels and had
returned to commercial shipping ventues.

2/21/1745. He was sighted off St. Augustine with two ships,
one commanded by his son, William Jr., trading with the
Spanish

9/10/1745. His vessel was captured by Spanish privateers
and he was taken into St. Augustine.

9/25/1745. His wife, Ann, died while he was captive.

10/22/1745. He arrived in South Carolina after being
released, along with 51 others, by the Spanish.

6/1746. Returning to the Bahamas, he was placed in command
of a privateer, the Isabella,  and with it captured a
Spanish vessel containing a cargo valued at £52,500.

3/1754. He died. In his will he left his son William Jr.
one English shilling, his third wife, Elizabeth Evans
Rowlad one Spanish milled dollar, and all the rest of his
estate to his under-aged son, James.

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