Blayney Townley Balfour JP (1799 - 5 September 1882)[1][2] was Lieutenant Governor of the Bahamas from 1833 to 1835.

He was born in Ireland in 1799, and educated at Christ Church College, Oxford.[2] His father and great-grandfather (both also called Blayney Townley-Balfour) were both Irish MPs.

In June 1833 he assumed the governorship of the Bahamas after Sir James Carmichael-Smyth, the previous governor, was appointed to the governorship of British Guiana.[3] During this period he oversaw the implementation of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which came into effect on 1 August 1834.

In 1833 and 1834 he deployed troops multiple times to Exuma to "restore discipline" among Lord Rolle's slaves (later 'apprentices') there.[4] However, the transition in August 1834 was otherwise "quiet and orderly",[4] perhaps due in part to the fact that a system of indentured apprenticeships (understood by many including Balfour himself to benefit the holders more than the apprentices themselves)[5] had been employed in the Bahamas since 1811,[6] as well as to the threat of force[4]

In 1843 he married Elizabeth Catherine Reynell, with whom he had four children.[1] He died on 5 September 1882.

References

  1. 1 2 Burke, Bernard (1871). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Harrison.
  2. 1 2 Foster, Joseph, "Balfour, Blayney Townley (2)", Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886, retrieved 2023-07-13
  3. ↑ The Royal Gazette, and Bahama Advertiser, June 15, 1833
  4. 1 2 3 Cration, Michael; Saunders, Gail (2019). Islanders in the stream: a history of the Bahamian people. Vol. 1. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. pp. 389–395. ISBN 9780820321226.
  5. ↑ Johnson, Howard (1996). The Bahamas from slavery to servitude, 1783-1933. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. pp. 74–79. ISBN 9780813018584.
  6. ↑ Craton, Michael; Saunders, Gail (2000). Islanders in the stream: a history of the Bahamian people. Vol. 2. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780820322841.
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