Succession
Adolph Esmit’s long imprisonment both on St. Thomas and in Copenhagen in 1686 and 1687 had given him grounds for appearing as the injured party, and for demanding some form of restitution. While the Milan trial was dragging slowly on, the former governor and his wife seemed to have been kept in prison in Copenhagen. From their arrival on October 12, 1686, until March, 1687, when Nicholas’ case against his brother was finally ready for trial, they remained in confinement. Here, as in the case of Milan, a commission was appointed, and although a number of petty irregularities and cases of tampering with accounts were found, Adolph Esmit was on November 2, 1687, given a verdict of not guilty.
On the same day, the directors of the company named him governor of St. Thomas, A few days later a fleet of three ships, the Young Tobias, the Red Cock (Den Røde Hane) and the Maria left Copenhagen for the West Indies. Accompanying Adolph Esmit, and in command of the fleet, was vice-admiral Iver Hoppe who seems to have had secret orders to being Esmit back with him to Denmark in case he proved intractable.
In 1689, the governor and council proposed that a sugar mill should be put up on Milan’s former plantation, and ventured the opinion that if sugar cane should prove successful on the Company’s plantations, it would prove more profitable than cotton or tobacco.
| Preceded by Adolph Esmit |
Governor of the Danish West Indies 1684–1686 |
Succeeded by Mikkel Mikkelsen |
Read more about this topic: Gabriel Milan
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