W E Armbrister (c 1894) and pictured here
at Long Branch (c 1896) with E A and Cyril Armbrister age 4 months
Courtesy of Historical Association of
Southern Florida.
The hitherto unpublished account of W. E. Armbrister's "A Short History
of the Bahamas of Recent Date"
had been buried among the W. E. Armbrister family papers for over a half
century. Mrs. Frances Armbrister, wife of the late Cyril Armbrister, escaped a
near fatal fire which destroyed her Cat Island home. Many of the family's
documents were ruined but this account survived. Mrs. Armbrister's safe keeping
and generous contribution has made its publication possible.
Although unsigned, the "Short History" is unmistakably in W. E.
Armbrister's hand. By comparison, legal documents written by him are carefully
penned except for his signature
(a thing usually done in haste and with a flourish) which represents the
character of the penmanship in the "Short History." The account,
scrawled on faintly lined, steel blue stationery, is unfinished.
The Honourable William Edward Armbrister was a member of the Executive
Council and Preisdent of the Legislative Council
and served as a member of the Bahamas House of Assembly for over twenty years.
Because of ill health, he resigned his post in May
and died in June, 1907.
It would have been unlike the character of this man, as a devoted worker on
behalf of government, simply to languish and die. It is entirely possible that
he wrote the "Short History" during the last month of his life and
that this is the reason for the sometimes incomprehensible handwriting. This
and the choppiness of his discourse resulted from the man's desperate push to
finish one more, one final act, worthy of his "prominent place in the
public life of the colony."
The
Guardian further characterized W. E. Armbrister as a man who
filled his government post in "an able and dignified manner," who, in
religious affairs, was a "most conscientious, consistent and indefatigable
worker,"
who "earned the respect and admiration of his fellow citizens by his
sterling upright character, and his cheerful and genial disposition," and
whose "career both as a public individual and private gentleman" was
distinguished by "his invariable courtesy and unswerving honesty of
purpose ..."
W. E. Armbrister, son of John Armbrister, Jr., and Caroline Thurston, was
born at the Camp Estate on Cat Island in the Bahamas on the 8th of April, 1819.
His father and grandfather were both British Loyalists exiled from America by
the Revolution.
|
No written documentation for the family's movements prior to their time in
America has been found to date, but an oral account of the Armbrister family
history has passed down through the years and was put into written form by P.
W. D. Armbrister. Recorded in the "Family History" is the fact that
Thaddeus Armbrister, W. E.'s great grandfather, during the earliest years of
the 1700's, went from Ryswick, Holland, to Warsaw, Poland, and then to England
where" he married an English woman." Later, "either Thaddeus or
his son John, or both, went to South Carolina."
The first written evidence establishing the presence of an Armbrister in the
American colonies was entered in the Carolina Public Records in November, 1758.
John Armbrister, baker, mortgaged land in Charleston
to Gabriel Manigault, merchant, for which Mary Elizabeth Armbrister issued a
renunciation of dower.
If you are interested in the full text
of the article, you may order this issue of our Journal for B$5.00 plus
shipping & handling by contacting the society.
All past Journals sell at $5 ($3 for students)
The 2009 Jubilee Journal sells at $10 ($7 for students)
Full set of 31 Journals: $110
Our next talks are:
Thursday
25th
February 2010 at 6pm Talk
‘Over-the-Hill’ Grants Town by Sir
Orville Turnquest.
Thursday 25th March at 6pm
features Dr Harry Munnings – Westward (his new book)
Thursday 29th April at 6pm –
Annual General Meeting
Thursday 27th May at 6pm –
Nicolette Bethel and Philip Burrows – History of Theatre in Bahamas
All at our museum corner of Shirley
Street and Elizabeth Avenue Parking at the ex Psilinakis carpark north of the
museum on Elizabeth Ave. Entrance via First Caribbean Bank on Shirley Street.
The Bahamas Historical Society (BHS)
is a non-profit organization dedicated to stimulating interest in
Bahamian History and to the collection and preservation of material
relating thereto. Its Headquarters, the former IODE Hall, was a gift
from the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (IODE). BHS is
on Shirley Street and Elizabeth Avenue in Nassau.
www.bahamashistoricalsociety.
com
