The Vanterpool Family
By Will Johnson
Some years ago members of the Lions club visiting here from Trinidad were being hosted at the Lt. Governor’s residence by Lt. Governor Sydney Sorton.
In his speech he commented on how visionary old Captain Thomas Charles Vanterpool was when he built that house. The house was completed on November 3rd 1900. It was built so strategically and beautiful that it could serve as the official residence of Saba’s Lt. Governor.
Also at the inaugural reception for Lt. Governor Jonathan Johnson the large number of dignitaries from Sint Maarten, who graced this reception with their presence, were full of compliments about the building and the grounds.
In the nineteen twenties it was purchased for the government by the then ‘Onder-Gezaghebber’ (Vice Lt. Governor) W.F.M. Lampe who was married to Captain Vanterpool’s daughter Lena. The property next to it with a house on it was also purchased and turned in to the Queen Wilhelmina Park. This provides an additional green space for the residence, which in all is probably as much as two acres.
The Vanterpool family though small was one of the wealthiest families on Saba, if not the wealthiest. Three of the brothers were Captains and their homes still survive in The Bottom.
The family is of Dutch origin. In the old records it is spelled as Van der Poel, van der Poele, and van der Poelen. Eventually it became Anglicized to Vanterpool.
The family (like so many others of that period) moved from Sint Eustatius to Sint Maarten, on to the Virgin Islands and then back to Saba.
From the old records we find the following information.
1688 , Van der Poele, Willem – Saba
1696, Van der Poel, Daniel – Sint Eustatius
1699, Van der Poele, Mayken – Saba
1699, Van der Poele, Daniel – Sint Eustatius
ditto 1705, 1710 and 1715 for Daniel.
1715, Van der Poele, Willem – Sint Maarten
1728, Van der Poelen, Willem Jr. –Sint Maarten
1728, Van der Poelen, Daniel – Sint Maarten
1728, Van der Poelen, William – Sint Maarten
1781, Vanterpool, John – Sint Eustatius
John apparently came from Tortola and was just temporarily on Sint Eustatius when Admiral George Rodney took the census in the autumn of 1781.
There was also a William Edward Vanterpool who in 1784 bought 98 acres of land on the island of Jost Van Dyke. An estate map for Tortola, dated 1798, did not show any Vanterpools or similar spellings.
The earliest Vanterpool found in the British Virgin Islands is ‘Mary’ widow of the island commander who married John Park of ‘Guana Island’ on August 31st, 1754.
In 1753 a Samuel Vanderpool owned a plantation on St. Kitts.
William van der Poelen, Jr. in 1735 is listed as a new Member of Council and also in the year 1737. On May 12th, 1745 he had been living on Sint Maarten for 33 years and was listed as one of the islands oldest inhabitants. Jan van der Poelen was listed as a Member of Council on Sint Maarten on January 15th, 1748. Daniel van der Poelen died on Sint Maarten on December 21st, 1758. On October 10th, 1776 Rebecca van der Poele left as widow of Samuel Houwel.
In the records of St.Thomas William Vanterpool and family arrived there on November 12th, 1819 (wife, 3 sons and 2 daughters, Abraham, Daniel and David and Mary and Ann), and also three slaves arrived from Sint Maarten to stay as J. Hassells place.
The Wesleyan Methodist church baptismal records on Virgin Gorda for 1815 to 1919 show the following.
William and Margaret Ann Vanterpool “bottom planters” had the following children all born in Spanish Town. Ann Elizabeth was born in 1824. Alice Maria born 1826.01.07. Thomas Joseph born 1827 and Peter Theophilus born 1830.12.05.
Thomas Pitman Vanterpool and his wife Mary, planters, baptized a son Henry born 1836.
They lived on Jost van Dyke and had a son John born 1844.07.18 and William born 1845.10.01.
John Pitman and Charlotte Anne Vanterpool –schoolmaster –had a child Mary Clements born 1847 and John Pitman Jr. b. 1852.
Another interesting fact is the use of the given name ‘Pitman’ for the Vanterpool sons in the Virgin Islands and on Saba also turns up in the Vanterpools in Tennessee and Missouri in the nineteenth century.
In 1860 the death is recorded on Saba of Abraham Charleswell Simmons Vanterpool. He was married to Annie Toland who died in childbirth in Spanish town, Virgin Gorda.
He worked in the copper mines there. They had a son Thomas Charleswell Vanterpool.
Annie Tolands’ mother Ann Rodgers who was from Antigua and the wife of the Reverend John Toland of England, brought young Thomas Charleswell to Saba where he grew up. He was born in 1826. On November 19th, 1851 at the age of 25, Thomas married Johanna Simmons aged 23. She was of a prominent Saba family. They had seven children of which the following four survived.
- John Pitman Vanterpool born November 30th, 1857. He married Georgianna Simmons on 1-7-1881 (26).
- Ernest Hugh Toland Vanterpool born 1st half of 1852. He married a daughter of Governor Moses Leverock. His home is being used by The Living Water Community.
- Lillias Vanterpool born December 3rd 1853 and married Dr. Christian Pfanstiehl, and
- Thomaas Charles Vanterpool (Captain Tommy) born August 20th, 1865 on Saba.His wife was Johannah Dinzey Leverock also a daughter of Governor Moses Leverock.
These were the Vanterpools of Saba. The three boys all became Captains and owners of large schooners which traded between the West Indies and New York. Captain Tommy who owned the home which is now the residence of the Lt. Governor owned a large number of schooners in his lifetime. The largest was the ‘Mayflower’ which was 147 feet long and weighed 190.27 tons. This schooner was built in Gloucester, Mass., to compete in the “Bluenose” races. My uncle Captain Charles Reuben Simmons who was captain of the ‘Mayflower’ from 1928 to 1930, told me that in 1929 he left St.Kitts with 375 passengers, under sail, and arrived 48 hours later on Curacao. Once he carried 460 passengers from Dominica and St.Lucia with this schooner and was promptly fined on arrival for carrying too many passengers. They were being recruited by the SHELL Company as labourers.
The ‘Ina Vanterpool’, 105 feet long and 191.30 tons was lost off St.Eustatius on September 16th, 1926. Captain Tommy paid f.162.500 for this three master schooner. She was built by Captain Lovelock Hassell in Jamestown Barbados and could carry 100 tons of cargo. Besides carrying freight and passengers, Captain Tommy also had the contract to carry the mails between the Northern Dutch islands and Curacao.
His schooner the ‘Estelle’ was the subject of an interesting report by Judge Polvliet who described a twelve day passage from Curacao to Sint Maarten with 26 passengers on board. The cook was a 13 year old boy from Saba, Diederick Every, who later lived in Baltimore. I met him when he was in his late eighties and interviewed him about life as a cook on a passenger schooner.
The “Dreadnought’, with Captain Samuel Augustus Simmons, in a race under sail from Curacao to Sint Maarten made it in 48 hours. My uncle Charles Herbert Simmons was a young mess boy on that schooner. The ‘Georgetown’ was lost in a hurricane in Nevis but my uncle Herbert survived.
The schooner ‘Lena Vanterpool’ once saved the life of her master Captain Tommy. As the story goes he used to smuggle out escaped convicts from Cayenne who paid their passage in gold garnered from the rivers of French Guyana. An old black woman on shore used to signal the Captain when prisoners were ready to board. On that particular night, the old lady signaled imminent danger. Captain Tommy did not wait to pull up the anchor, but ordered it cast away when he spied a French Man-Of-War rounding the point and coming in his direction. It is claimed that the ‘Lena Vanterpool’ sailed so fast that when she reached Barbados the oakum had been washed out of her seams.
At one point when the French Man-Of-War was getting too close for comfort the captain ordered more sail and pleased with his schooner ‘Go Lena go, your master is in trouble. Spread your wings and fly like an eagle.’ He had ordered the crew if the French caught up with them to put him in a barrel and throw him overboard.
Captain Tommy’s daughter Lena married W.F.M. Lampe who merits an article of his own in future.
The Vanterpools besides the home families had many ‘by-sides’ in all the islands. I will not mention how many children they had. It was the subject of much concern among the white Vanterpool descendants in the USA when I ventured an estimate once. But believe me that the two brothers Captain Tommy and Captain Ernest took the biblical encouragement to heart and they went forth and multiplied. And multiplied, a lot!
On the subject of gold! The late Commissioner John Woods once told me that his father Ben told him the following story. Captain Ernest gave him a sealed galvanize pail to bring to his house in The Bottom. It weighed a ton and he thought he would die by the time he got there. When the wife saw the pail she said:’ I cannot believe this. Another pail of gold! What does Ernest intend to do with all this gold. The ceiling is full and under all the beds is full. I have to remind him that you cannot eat gold.’ I tell people that ‘this is the house where gold lost its value.’
Neither the Vanterpools nor the Tolands survive on Saba. Captain Tommy’s son Professor Thomas Clifford Vanterpool became a famous scientist in Canada and won many awards there and he has descendants there. Captain Tommy’s granddaughter Sheila Lampe, formerly married to Tawa Yrausquin, lives on Aruba.
The following announcement signaled the last of the Vanterpool’s of Saba. This is taken from the Virgin Islands Daily News of June 6th, 1950 on St.Thomas.
‘Mrs. Ina Simmons and the Engle Simmons family thank all friends and acquaintances for kindness and sympathy shown in the death of their beloved father and Uncle Thomas C. Simmons.’
Well not really. Captain Tommy in his old age fired a last shot. The maid who had been brought from St.Maarten to take care of Captain Tommy was the mother of his last daughter who lives on an island where people read the’ Herald ‘and is a friend of mine.
The Vanterpool families did Saba proud, and when you admire the residence of the Lt. Governor of Saba please take note that it is a replica of the house that Captain Tommy built. The original was infested with termites and the new one rebuilt in the same style in the nineteen sixties.
* * * * *
THE SABA ISLANDER 