Bernard Romans

Background

Bernard Romans was born in Delft, Netherlands, son of Pieter Barendsz Romans and Margareta van der Linden

Education

He studied engineering in England and about 1757 was sent to North America by the British government on professional work.

Career

In 1766 he was appointed deputy surveyor of Georgia, but went to East Florida to survey Lord Egmont's estates on Amelia Island and the St. John's River, and was thus enabled to make observations in the northern part of the peninsula. In January 1767, he petitioned for a grant of land in the province; in that year and the next he took up lands at Savannah and on the Ogeechee River, and in 1769 he acquired a tract on Nassau River in Florida, and subsequently extended his investigations to the middle and western parts of the peninsula. In 1769-70 Romans was appointed principal deputy surveyor for the Southern District by the surveyor general, William Gerard De Brahm, at a salary of $30 a year; but since De Brahm was suspended by Gov. James Grant in October 1770, Romans failed to receive his salary and brought suit. Nevertheless, he went on a voyage of nearly a year's duration at his own expense, selling his Florida land in 1771. He thus completed his exploration of the Florida and Bahama banks and the west coast as far as Pensacola. There he was employed by Gov. Peter Chester and John Stuart , superintendent of Indian affairs, to assist in the survey of West Florida and to prepare maps. Finding that Romans understood botany, Chester obtained permission from England to pay him $50 or $60 a year to make botanical discoveries, and the surveyor thus became the king's botanist in the province. Having voyaged as far as New Orleans, he sailed for Charlestown in February 1773, to resume employment under Stuart in South Carolina. His vessel capsized on the journey, and, after his arrival at his destination, for some reason Stuart declined his service. Romans thereupon proceeded to New York to get subscribers for a book he planned to write on the Floridas. In the following August he was elected a member of the Marine Society of that city and attended a meeting of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, before which he described two Florida plants, previously unknown, presented a paper on an improvement in the mariner's compass, and exhibited a navigation chart for the Florida waters. In January 1774 he was made a member of the society; he was then in Boston seeing about the engraving of his maps and endeavoring to obtain more subscribers for his book. Meanwhile he had found time to contribute an article on indigo to the Royal American Magazine (January 1774). On Mar. 9 he met the Rev. Ezra Stiles in Newport, Rhode Island, with whom he later talked at length about Indians, Stiles recording in his diary that "Capt. Romans" had traveled among all the tribes "from Labradore to Panama" (The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, 1901, I, 524-25). At the end of March the busy author was in New York, when he wrote an article on the cultivation of madder for the Royal American Magazine (April 1774). Settling shortly afterward in Hartford, Romans was appointed in April 1775 a member of the Connecticut committee to take possession of Ticonderoga and its outposts. He disagreed with the other leaders about the mode of attack, went on to Fort George, then in the custody of an invalided officer and one assistant, and on May 12 seized it single-handed. He behaved "very genteel and civil" toward his prisoner, permitting him to go to Connecticut. After accepting employment with the New York committee of safety to construct fortifications on the Hudson near West Point, he gave allegiance to the provincial congress on September 18. He complained of his difficulties while building Fort Constitution, opposite West Point (September 30, 1775 - Feb. 9, 1776), and criticized the committee's plan. Although signing himself "Colonel, " he failed to receive his commission from the provincial congress, resented the countermanding of his orders, and refused to serve as "an overseer" instead of as "sole director" of his plan. By direction of the Continental Congress he was paid up to Feb. 9, 1776. Returning to Philadelphia, Romans was commissioned in February 1776 captain of a company of Pennsylvania artillery for service in Canada. In November, Gen. Horatio Gates deputed him to inspect the works at Fort Anne and Skenesboro. Later he retired to Wethersfield, Connecticut. About July 1780, Romans was ordered to South Carolina to join the southern army. His vessel was captured and conducted to Montego Bay, Jamaica, where he was kept prisoner. At the end of the Revolution he was put on board ship for some port of the United States, having with him a large sum of money. He is said to have died at sea.

Romans' most noted book is A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida, of which vol. I was published in New York in 1775, and issued in a second edition in 1776. A second volume was projected but never published. The appendix to the History, containing contributions from De Brahm and other navigators, was published in 1789 as The Complete Pilot for the Gulf Passage, and reprinted in 1794 as A New and Enlarged Book of Sailing Directions, and again in 1797 with a slight change in title. The first volume of Romans' Annals of the Troubles in the Netherlands appeared at Hartford in 1778, and the second volume at the same place in 1782. These he compiled and translated "from the most Approved Historians. " His printed maps include plans of Pensacola Harbor, Mobile Bar, and Tampa Bay, printed in the Appendix to the Concise Natural History; "A Map of the Whole Navigation, Showing Lieut. Cook's Tracks, " in John Hawkesworth's A New Voyage Round the World (vol. I, 1774); Part of the Province of East Florida (1774), reprinted in the Concise Natural History; A Map of the Seat of Civil War in America (1775), showing Boston and the neighboring region; "A General Map of the Southern British Colonies in America, " in The American Military Pocket Atlas (1776); A Chorographical Map of the Northern Department of North America and A Chorographical Map of the Country Round Philadelphia, both advertised for sale in 1778.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Concise Natural History Of East And West Florida (1775)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida by Bernard Romans (1999-11-15)

Membership

member of the Marine Society

member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia

Connections

He retired to Wethersfield, Connecticut, where he married Elizabeth Whiting, January 28, 1779. His son Hubertus was born on October 23 of that year.

He is said to have died at sea. His widow tried unsuccessfully to obtain a pension, and died in New York, May 12, 1848, at the age of eighty-nine years.

superior officer:

William Gerard De Brahm

Wife:

Elizabeth

He married Elizabeth Whiting, January 28, 1779.

Son:

Hubertus

His son Hubertus was born on October 23, 1779.