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William Wylly was one of several men who retired in Budleigh Salterton after spending most of their life abroad.  He died at the age of 71 in 1828 and is buried in East Budleigh Churchyard.

Wylly was born in Georgia in May 1757.  He trained as a lawyer in England before returning to the North American Colonies in 1780.  During the War of Independence he remained an ardent loyalist and fought for the Crown, and he was on a list of loyalists banished from Georgia in 1782 at the end of the war. He moved north to New Brunswick to practise law and became the first King’s Counsel and Registrar of the Court of Vice-Admiralty in New Brunswick (1). 

He married the daughter of David Matthews, the last mayor of New York under the Crown, and they had four sons and four daughters.  Wylly moved with his family to the Bahamas, and in 1788 he was appointed Solicitor-General and Surrogate of the Vice-Admiralty Court (2).  He was made Chief Justice in 1797 but he resigned the post very quickly because of the low salary.  He became Attorney General of the Bahamas in 1799 and King’s Advocate and Procurator General in 1800, retaining these posts till 1821(3).

Wylly bought land at the western end of New Providence Island between 1799 and 1804 and created the Clifton Plantation.  By 1821 he had two further plantations, Waterloo and Tusculum, and owned a total of 67 slaves.  He was a reformer and tried to show that proper management and treatment of slaves could still produce a profit, but he was not an abolitionist.  He wasn’t in the end totally successful in this endeavour.  He showed concern for the educational and religious well being of his slaves and invited Methodist missionaries to his plantations. 

In his legal capacity he came into conflict with the Governor and the slave owners over a new Law imposed from England which stated that all slaves should be registered; this was to prevent illegal importation and sale of slaves, and the Bahamian House of Assembly managed to resist its imposition until 1822.  Wylly brought legal actions against slave owners and overseers, for the mistreatment of their slaves, and this resulted in considerable resentment against him.  In one incident he was horsewhipped in the street.  In 1817 the Speaker of the Assembly issued a warrant for his arrest.  The Chief Justice promptly issued a writ of Habeus Corpus and he was released on bail.  The problem dragged on but the Law was finally enacted (4).

In 1821 Wylly was appointed Chief Justice of St. Vincent and it was from here that he returned to England. 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon, © 2010

(1)Foot-prints,or,incidents in early history of New Brunswick, by J W Lawrence,1883, J&A McMillan. Saint John, NB.

(2)www.famousamericans.net/williamwylly/

(3)William Wylly and the “Wylly Affair” by Dr Gail Saunders

(4)Article from the Nassau Guardian 2006

BS-B-00023 Biography 86 any