Jamaica’s newly installed Governor Thomas Modyford divides…

Jamaica’s newly installed Governor Thomas Modyford divides the island into parishes in late 1664, soon after his arrival from Barbados.

Sir James Modyford is granted a royal license in November to ship convicted felons from England to his brother in Jamaica, where Sir Thomas uses a labor force of twenty-eight English indentured servants.

As governor, Modyford is required to call in all pirates and privateers of the West Indies because England and Spain are temporarily at peace.

However, the majority of these buccaneers either refuse to return or do not receive the message that there has been a recall, including Henry Morgan, whose uncle, Edward Morgan, had preceded Modyford as acting governor of Jamaica in 1664.

Henry Morgan had married his uncle's daughter Mary, a cousin.

Richard Browne, who would serve as the pirate Morgan's surgeon at Panama, said that Morgan came to Jamaica in 1658 as a young man, and raised himself to "fame and fortune by his valour".

Although Modyford proclaims loyalty to the Crown, he is to become a critical element of Henry Morgan’s exhibitions by going against the word of the king and granting Morgan letters of marque to attack Spanish ships and settlements.