Abstract
The first member of the Ormond family to come to Florida was a Scotchman, James Ormond I, who owned and commanded an armed brig, the Somerset, which sailed in the services of the famous trading firm of Panton and Leslie. In the 1700’s James Ormond sailed the Somerset in the pirate-infested waters of the West Indies and between Savannah and present day Apalachicola. Later in life Ormond gave up seafaring and settled down on a cotton plantation on the island of Exuma in the West Indies. The invitation from the Spanish government for settlers to come to Florida, and the offer of large land grants induced James Ormond to give up his plantation on Exuma and move to Florida. His first plantation was near New Smyrna and other families from the Bahamas, including a General Williams, also had plantations in that vicinity. A runaway negro slave from the Williams plantation shot and killed James Ormond as he was walking with his son Emanuel. The runaway negro was eventually captured and shot, and his “corpse cremated.”
Recommended Citation
Strickland, Alice
(1962)
"James Ormond, Merchant and Soldier,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 41:
No.
3, Article 3.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol41/iss3/3
