Culpeper Island
Barbados

Skeete’s Bay and Culpeper Island (from an unknown travelogue on Barbados)

On the east side of Bell Point is a fine, deeply-indented rocky cove named Cummins Hole. Here is a sheer vertical cliff face of sandstone, for the lines of stratification can be plainly seen. Of course these do not appear in coral rock cliffs. One can climb down to the tip of the blunt little promontory east of Bell Point and secure an impressive view back into Cummins Hole.

Climbing around the base of the cliffs into Skeete’s Bay is a fascinating experience, requiring a cool head and some skill in negotiating rocks. If there is a good sea running one is deluged with spray but it takes one into a small corner of the island quite unknown to most people.

At one point one can climb a vertical 15 foot cliff to reach a small platform backed by a higher vertical cliff. Here one may relax at ease, forgetting one’s mundane cares, to revel in the beauty of the cliffs and the boundless ocean.

If one does not wish to negotiate the grass pasture to Bell Point, one can drive through Bayfield village to the bus terminus. Park the car clear of the turning bus and walk along the coast to Cummins Hole and Bell Point.

From the top of the cliff close to the bus terminus there is a very fine view down over the pale sandy oval of Skeete’s Bay, outstanding in beauty, backed by the grassy slopes running down to the rock-edged coast from the thick grove of Casuarinas around Whitehaven.

From Bayfield village one can walk down the path to the small fish market building and so to the strand. Or one can drive around back to the main road and down to the fish market. With some of the fishing boats moored offshore or coming in with their catches in the afternoon, Skeete’s Bay has a great deal of charm.

From the aesthetic point of view one cannot help regretting the days when the boats were sail boats, as they were up to the mid 1950's. For it was a joy to see the boats putting out to sea, sails billowing in the wind, in the early morning light. But of course from the practical point of view the installation of inboard engines in the fishing boats made it quicker and safer than before to get to and from the fishing grounds.

Ragged Point and Skeete's Bay

From Skeete’s Bay it is an easy stroll along the shore to Culpeper Island. This is so tucked away in its bay that it cannot readily be seen unless a special effort is made to go there. It is true that it is visible from Ragged Point, but it is small and harmonizes so well with the background of rocky coast that it is difficult to pick it out from there.

The island is no more than about 25 by 35 yards, rising about 20 feet above sea level. It is surrounded with low sloping cliffs with a little green grass on top. The channel separating the island from the coast is no more than 30 or 40 yards in width. But one cannot wade across, one has to swim.

On the island one has that sensation of being in a small world of one’s own, reached by one’s own physical efforts, not by some mechanical contrivance, which is always rewarding. And as in all intimate contact with wild nature, one feels a close kinship with the natural forces of the earth which is beyond the price of rubies.

The name of Culpeper island is of great interest, as well as the island being a notable feature of a stretch of very attractive coastline. While it is not too easy to pinpoint the origin of the name, one can indicate some negative evidence.

The name does not appear on the Swann map dated to about 1654, the first map of Barbados, published in Ligon’s book in 1657. This shows Conset Bay and a place name Long Bay nowhere near where Long Bay is situated, for Swann’s delineation of the coast and the interior is very inaccurate and hard to follow.

Schomburg has no mention of Culpeper Island in his account of St. Philip. Harlow, in his authoritative account of the early history of Barbados up to 1685, does not mention the name Culpeper, while Dunn, in his excellent account of the establishment of the sugar estates and of the stratification of the planters, has no reference to any Culpepers as owning land in the island.

Culpepper Connections Publisher's Note: In 1680 in St. Philip Parish, Barbados: Francis Culpeper owned 74 acres of land, had 2 servants and 22 slaves. Alleyne Culpeper had 150 acres, 3 servants and 30 slaves. (See Omitted Chapters from Hotten's Original Lists of Persons of Quality... and Others Who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. James C. Brandow, editor. Genealogical Publishing Co, Baltimore, 1983.)

To me, as a historian who did special studies in English 17^th century history 40 years ago at Cambridge, the name Culpeper has always had an attraction. Sir John Culpeper, one of the two members for Kent in the very important Long parliament which met in November 1640, was an associate of Lord Falkland and Edward Hyde, later Earl of Clarendon, and was appointed by King Charles I Chancellor of the Exchequer in November 1641. After the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642, Culpeper became a noted Royalist supporter and member of the young prince of Wales’ Council.

Many Royalist supporters emigrated to Barbados after the end of the main Civil War in England in 1646. The Culpepers in Barbados certainly owned a property between the present Three houses and Golden Grove and the one overlooking the small island still bearing their name. And they owned the Bayfield plantation to the west of the coastal property. Their origin is of interest.

It seems that the first mention of the name was that of Thomas de Culpeper who was one of the Recognitores Magnae Assasis in the reign of King John, who ruled from 1199-1215. The Culpeper family probably originated at Bayfield near Pepenbury in Lincolnshire, in the north-east of England, but had early connections with the county of Kent, the ‘garden of England’ south-east of London where John Culpeper was castellan of the famous Leeds Castle as early as 1291, in King Edward I’s time. A grandson, also John Culpeper, was knighted by King Edward III and served as Sheriff of Kent three times in the 1360's.

In the 14^th century Walter Culpeper married the widow of John Bedgebury and so founded the Culpepers of Goudhurst, a family which by the acquisition of property gradually spread over three counties.

Culpepers fought at many of the famous battles of medieval times, including the battle of Lewes of 1264, at the Black prince’s destruction of the pursuing French army at Poitiers in 1356 and at king Henry V’s great victory at Agincourt in 1415.

The Culpeper family coat of arms was: Argent, a band engrailed Gules, the Latin motto of the family: "Jesus Christe filio Misere Mei." Of the arms there is a mention in accounts of the Battle of Agincourt that "Culpeper with silver arm entailed, bore thereupon a bloody hand engrailed."

By the time of the famous Elizabethan scholar and antiquarian, William Camden, the Culpepers, sometimes spelled Colepepers but never with the double ‘p’, had subdivided into numerous family branches; he stated that at one time there were 12 knights of the family alive at one time. One branch was associated with the village of Hollingbourne in Kent. In the village church, as recorded by the noted writer and essayist E. V. Lucas in a book entitled Saunterer’s Rewards, there is a marble effigy of Lady Elizabeth Culpeper who died in 1638, wife of Sir Thomas Culpeper to whom she bore a numerous family, including four daughters.

After the end of the Civil War, while their father, a noted Royalist, was living in exile in Europe, the four ladies embroidered a large altar cloth which they presented to the church in thanksgiving after his safe return at the time of the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660. The altar cloth, of rich purple velvet, embroidered in gold thread in the shape of fruit and elaborate scroll work around the borders by the four pious ladies, is still in existence.

The father of the industrious seamstresses, Sir Thomas Culpeper, born in 1578, in mid-Elizabethan times, was a wealthy man. Not content with his ancestral estate of Greenway Court at Hollingbourne and the Manor itself, he purchased Leeds Castle three miles away, leaving it to his son Cheney. The latter sold it to his cousin John, the staunch supporter of Charles I who created him the first Lord Culpeper.

One tradition for the origin of the name of Bayfield estate in St. Philip is that is is reminiscent of Bayham Abby near the old spa resort of Tunbridge Wells in Kent. The old estate house at Bayfield was wrecked in the 1898 hurricane.

Two Culpeper brothers, Francis and Alleyne Culpeper married two Gaskin sisters at a double wedding in St. Michael’s Cathedral in 19^th century days. Another member of the Culpeper family was Dr. W. F. Culpeper who owned the small Industry plantation in St. Joseph, located just north of Paris Hill past St. Ann’s Church and around the corner to the left. Dr. Culpeper was killed in Blackman’s Gully not far away when riding his favorite horse, which was blind, on his way one stormy night to see a patient.

Another of the Culpeper clan was Abel Alleyne Culpeper, who was associated with Easy Hall in St. Joseph. On the estate is a tomb to his wife Elizabeth, which has a long inscription attesting to her virtues. Easy Hall has given rise to the amusing expression ‘living at Easy Hall’ for one who does not work but is sustained by his relations, usually female.

To revert to the earlier Culpeper family in England before 1627, one well-known member of it was the herbalist Nicholas Culpeper, ‘a student in Physics and Astrology,’ in the tradition of William Turner, Henry Lyte and John Gerard. In his works he listed 369 medicines made from a wide range of plants; in some English towns there are Culpeper herbalist shops where one can obtain his traditional remedies.

The male line of all the English branches appears to have died out in the 19^th century, although it is recorded that some members of the Bedgebury family emigrated to the West Indies. Antigua is one of the island they are reputed to have settled in, and named their estate Bedgebury after the family seat in Goudhurst.

The Barbados branch of the Culpepers originated from the Reverend William Culpeper of Wychling, Kent, who, in 1633, married Margaret, daughter of Richard Alleyne D. D., Rector of Stowting, Kent, thus beginning the long relationship with the Alleyne family. They settled in Barbados in the mid 1600's.

Driving through Marley Vale from the Bayfield direction, one can turn off to the left just before a dip in the road, where it swings away to the right. With care one can drive for 300 yards across a firm grass pasture to a slight elevation. Here the land breaks down in a low sloping cliff, plastered with verdure.

From this point there is a fine view down over Culpeper Island which is close at hand. Most of Skeete’s Bay is hidden, tucked away out of sight behind Whitehaven, itself mostly concealed in the Casuarina grove. But beyond Culpeper stands the bold promontory of Bell Point, forming an effective background.

This delightful vista is not tropical. Rather does it resemble a part of the Cornish coast, with alternating sandy coves and rock dirt promontories. But it is very fine and the quarrying which took place nearby a few years ago has ceased.

Drive through Marley Vale, taking the left turn which leads up to Ragged Point. In fact, there is a fine viewpoint one can reach by walking across the pasture on the left just after turning into the straight road to the East Point lighthouse. One reaches the edge of an inland escarpment system, the crest of which is about 120 feet above sea level.

This cliff edge is continuous from Ragged Point westwards for about 1,000 yards. At Ragged Point the cliff falls abruptly, but not vertically, to the sea. The intervening area is a maze of huge rocks, tilted and contorted in all directions, with a good deal of greenery contrasting with the brown and greys of the rock face.

Walking along the shore from Culpeper Island, it is possible to force a way along the tide line under this cataract of broken cliff. Climbing is necessary but none of any great difficulty. The problem lies in threading one’s way up through the broken rocks to emerge on the cliff top close to the Lighthouse.

From Ragged Point itself the view back to the west is very fine. Culpeper Island can be picked out if one searches carefully while the entrance to Skeete’s Bay is easy to see. And beyond Bell Point can be seen Conset Point in St. John, an effective repetition of the same coastal feature, that of a blunt-ended, squared-off rock promontory.

Immediately to the east of Ragged Point is the deeply indented Spring Bay, the curve of cliff terminating with the vertical face of Deebles Point. One can walk around the head of the bay to Deebles Point from which there is a fine run of 80 foot cliffs extending southeastwards for several hundred yards before curving around to The Chair.

But in the dry season it is possible to drive a car close to Deebles Point. From the Lighthouse drive back to the main road. Turn left, to drive past the right turning to Sealy Hill, St. Catherine’s Church and Golden Grove. Drive with care through a sharp double bend, keeping forward on the second bend.

This is a side road to Industry and then down a grassy track close to Deebles Point. But personally I prefer to take the next left turn off the main road, through Content Cot, by which one can navigate a car almost to the cliff edge at a point where a great slice of cliff ten feet wide has split away but had not yet fallen into the sea.

Photographs of Skete's Bay and Culpeper Island. Photographs taken in May 2002 during the honeymoon of Kelly Thrasher and Adrienne Hobbs.