1815 Brown / Stadler View of St. George's, Bermuda

St. George's: One of the Earliest English/British Settlements in the Americas.

This is a rare c. 1815 view of the town of St. George's, Bermuda, drawn by J. Brown and engraved by I. C. Stadler. It presents the colonial port town during the War of 1812 (1812 - 1815), when it served as a staging ground for the Royal Navy.

A Closer Look

This view is oriented towards the west, looking at the town from Barrack Hill, so named for a military barracks built there in 1780, explaining the presence of troops in the foreground at left. The church towards the right is most likely St. Peter's Church, the world's oldest surviving Anglican church in continuous use outside the British Isles. Ships can be seen in the harbor, which may allude to the town's importance as a Royal Navy stronghold during the War of 1812 (see below). A signaling station for ships can be seen atop Rose Hill in the distance on the right. In the foreground on the right are two Black women engaged in labor, a reminder of the role of slavery in the town's society and economy.

Among the Earliest English Settlements in the Americas

Settled in 1612, St. George's holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the New World (earlier settlements at Jamestown, Cupids, Newfoundland were only seasonal settlements at times). However, St. George's story truly began three years earlier in 1609, when the Sea Venture, the flagship of the Third Supply fleet bound for Jamestown, Virginia, was intentionally steered onto the reefs during a hurricane to prevent it from foundering. The shipwrecked survivors, including Admiral Sir George Somers, spent ten months building two new vessels, the Deliverance and the Patience, to complete their journey. While most continued to Virginia, three men remained behind to maintain England's claim, effectively marking the start of a permanent British presence on the islands.

By the mid-17th century, St. George's evolved from a collection of palmetto-thatched huts into a bustling maritime hub. As the capital of Bermuda, it became the center of the colony's political and economic life. The town's narrow, winding alleys and stone buildings were designed to withstand both Atlantic storms and potential invasions. Its economy revolved around the sea, from shipbuilding to the salt trade and privateering. Its proximity to North American shipping lanes made it a vital, if sometimes rebellious, link in the British Atlantic empire. As evidenced here, slavery was also a central part of colonial society, and St. George's was the first English colony to import indentured Africans soon after its founding, with as much as one-third of the population being Black by the late 17th century.

The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw St. George's take on intense geopolitical importance, particularly during the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783) and the War of 1812. St. George's was famously the site of the 1775 'Gunpowder Plot,' where local continental sympathizers stole the British garrison's powder magazine to assist the American Continental Army in exchange for food. Following the American victory, the town's strategic value skyrocketed as Britain lost its continental ports. It served as the primary staging ground for the British naval blockade of the United States and the 1814 raid on Washington, D.C. However, by 1815, the seat of government was moved to the more centrally located Hamilton, marking the end of St. George's tenure as the capital but preserving its unique, early-colonial architectural character for centuries to come.

Publication History and Census

This view was drawn by one J. Brown, identified by one source as a captain and aide-de-camp to General George Horsford, the Governor of Bermuda between 1812 and 1816. It was engraved by Joseph Constantine Stadler, who is variously recorded in catalog listings as I.C., J.C., or L.C. Stadler. At least one other print ('A View of the Town of Hamilton in the Bermudas or Summer Islands') was engraved by Stadler with Brown as the artist, but like the present work, it is unrecorded in institutional collections and very rare to the market.

Cartographer

Joseph Constantine Stadler (1755 - 1828) was a London-based engraver and print seller active in the early 19th century. Little information is available about his life, but he is believed to have been German-born, emigrating to London by the early 1780s and developing a specialization in aquatint prints, particularly for works on nature, views of London, and scenes of the English countryside. He worked with some leading British artists of the day, including Joseph Farington (1747 - 1821), Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg (1740 - 1812), and Thomas Rowlandson (1757 - 1827).   Further Details...

Condition

Good. Surface scuffing. Toning.