Ferdinand Palaiologos

Ferdinand Palaiologos or Paleologus (Italian: Ferdinando Paleologus; 1619 –2 October 1670) was an Italian-English nobleman and soldier who through his father Theodore Palaiologos was the alleged great-great-great-great-grandson of Thomas Palaiologos. Thomas was the brother of Emperors John VIII (r. 1425–1448) and Constantine XI (r. 1449–1453) and son of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (r. 1391–1425) of the Byzantine Empire. If this lineage is true, Ferdinand was one of the last living male-line descendants of the final Byzantine emperors.

For unknown reasons, possibly related to Ferdinand having fought on the royalist side in the English Civil War (1642–1651), he emigrated to Barbados, where he is first attested in 1644. Ferdinand quickly became one of the elite on the island, cultivating sugar and possibly pineapples and being influential in the affairs of the local St. John's Parish Church. He constructed a great mansion called Clifton Hall, named after the home he had lived in with his family in Cornwall. Clifton Hall remains to this day one of the largest, grandest and oldest great houses in Barbados.

By the time of his death in 1670, Ferdinand had become known on the island as the "Greek prince from Cornwall". Unlike the usual burial custom (feet to the west and head to the east), Ferdinand was buried with his feet pointing to the east and his head pointing to the west, oriented directly towards Constantinople, the ancient capital of the Byzantine Empire.

Ferdinand was the son of Theodore Palaiologos. According to the lineage presented on Theodore's tombstone, Theodore was a descendant of Thomas Palaiologos, the brother of the final two Byzantine emperors, John VIII and Constantine XI. According to the tombstone, Theodore's father was Camilio Palaiologos, the son of Prosperos Palaiologos, who was a son of another Theodore Palaiologos, who was the son of John Palaiologos, one of the sons of Thomas. Thomas Palaiologos lived in Italy for five years following his escape during the Ottoman invasion of the Morea in 1460. Thomas's other known sons, Andreas and Manuel, lived into the early 16th century. Although it can be verified that Theodore did actually live in Pesaro in Italy (as claimed on the tombstone), there is no independent evidence for the more crucial claim that Thomas Palaiologos had a son called John. It is still possible that Thomas had a son (possibly illegitimate) named John, or that the "John" of the tombstone genealogy was actually one of Thomas's other sons Andreas or Manuel or even one of Manuel's sons (one of which was called John). If one accepts the existence of John, in some form, there is little reason to doubt Theodore's lineage. Among Theodore's contemporaries and acquaintances, no one questioned his alleged imperial descent.

Other than the existence of John, the rest of Theodore's lineage can be verified through documents at Pesaro. There are for instance records of his grandfather Prosperos (or Prosper, Ferdinand's great-grandfather) and great-grandfather Theodore (Ferdinand's great-great-grandfather). Records from Pesaro also confirm the existence of two great-uncles of Ferdinand; Leonidas and Scipione Palaiologos, indicating that the family had been established within the town for some time before the incident which caused their exile. John Hall, author of a 2015 biography on Ferdinand's father Theodore, concluded with believing Theodore's ancestor John to have been a real son of Thomas, though probably illegitimate.

Ferdinand was the youngest of four sons of Theodore Palaiologos and had the older brothers Theodore (born 1600 and died shortly thereafter), Theodore (born 1609, sometimes in modern times called Theodore II) and John Theodore (born 1611). After his baptism in 1619, the next record of Ferdinand is his name appearing on the list of soldiers present at St Michael's Fort in Plymouth Sound in 1639. Before then he had likely lived with his father Theodore and his sisters Dorothea and Maria in Landulph, Cornwall. This listing suggests that Ferdinand, at age 19, had chosen to support the royalist side in the English Civil War of 1642–1651 (the opposite side of his brother Theodore). Unlike his brother Theodore, Ferdinand was not a commander in any capacity but a common soldier. Ferdinand's fate after 1639 is uncertain and he is not found in army lists compiled by either side in 1642. It is possible that he was either one of the royalists who chose to flee to Barbados to avoid punishment in England or that he had escaped to Barbados already before the war broke out.

Although it has been suggested by some historians that the emigration to Barbados was because of the fact that his mother Mary had moved there (and his father Theodore had died in 1636), this can't be true as Mary had died and been buried at Landulph in 1631. Regardless of the reason, Ferdinand is known to have been in Barbados by 1644, the same year that his brother Theodore died. Also with him at the time was his brother John Theodore, though he disappeared from the island shortly thereafter, his ultimate fate unknown. Though Mary was dead, Barbados was home to cousins of Ferdinand's mother and Ferdinand had become a freeholder by 1649, possibly supported by his relatives. Ferdinand and John Theodore were among the earliest to emigrate to the island as it had been discovered very recently (in 1620).

Ferdinand eventually became known on the island as the "Greek prince from Cornwall". By the 1650s, he was the owner of a small sugar plantation and had built a home in the eastern heights of the island, which he called Clifton Hall after the home he and his family had stayed in while in Cornwall. Clifton Hall, a large mansion, still stands today and remains recognised as one of the largest, grandest and oldest great houses in Barbados. Ferdinand married Rebecca Pomfrett, daughter of one of the local landowners and was in 1649 elected as a vestryman of St. John's Parish Church, located near Clifton Hall. Ferdinand supported the church throughout his life, by 1655 he was a churchwarden and in 1659 he was a trustee. He also concerned himself with affairs unrelated to the church, being attested as a lieutenant in 1654 and as a surveyor of the highways in 1660.

He gradually increased the size of his home and his lands, recorded as purchasing more land in July of 1662. One of the early maps of Barbados, drawn in 1685 (after Ferdinand's death), labels a plantation west of St. John's Parish as the "Paleologus and Beal" plantation. The plantation is marked on the map with a pineapple, suggesting that Ferdinand in addition to sugar had also cultivated pineapples.

In January 1670, Ferdinand was ill and his condition worsened over the later months of the year. His will was drawn up on 26 September and designated his heirs as his wife Rebecca and his son Theodore (identified in the will by the odd spelling Theodorious). Both of them inherited half of his belongings and half of his estate each. Ferdinand's sisters Dorothea and Maria were willed twenty shillings each and further money and items of value were willed to Ferdinand's godson Ralph Hassall and his assumed friend Edward Walrond. The monument near his grave (erected in 1906) wrongly gives Ferdinand's date of death as 3 October 1678; he actually died on 2 October 1670. He was buried at the cemetery of St. John's Parish Church in Saint John, Barbados.

Unlike the usual burial custom (feet to the west and head to the east), Ferdinand was buried with his feet pointing to the east and his head pointing to the west, oriented directly towards Constantinople. The site of Ferdinand's burial has been noted for its beauty, being located on a 240-metre (800 feet) high cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by palm trees and frangipani trees. The 1906 monument marking Ferdinand's grave reads:

The "Paleologus and Beal" marking for Ferdinand's plantation on the 1685 map probably refers to his son, Theodore, and the new husband of his widow, Captain Alexander Beale. Rebecca had remarried at some point before July 1672, when the will of her brother Abraham Pomfrett refers to her as "Rebecca Beale". Alexander took over much of Ferdinand's estate and also his church activities, being mentioned as a churchwarden of St. John's Parish in 1677.

Theodore Palaiologos (carrying the same name as Ferdinand's father and Ferdinand's oldest brother and as such sometimes in modern times called Theodore III) was Ferdinand and Rebecca's only known child. He married a woman from Barbados called Martha Bradbury near Bridgetown on 14 October 1684. Theodore returned to Europe that same year and worked as a sailor on the ship Charles II in England. Although some historians have claimed that Theodore served in the Royal Navy, there are no records of a Charles II in the navy. It is possible that he worked as a privateer or even as one of the deckhands aboard a ship transporting slaves. Theodore eventually lived in Stepney, London and died in Spain at A Coruña in 1693. He is known to have had a son during his life, though this son likely predeceased him. If his son was still alive by the time his will was written, 1 August 1693, he received no mention as the will was solely dedicated to Theodore's wife Martha.

Theodore did have a posthumous daughter, born to Martha on 12 January 1694 and recorded as having been baptised on 24 January, then twelve days old. The girl was given the name Godscall (thought to be the English equivalent of the Greek Theocletiane) Paleologue. Little is known of Godscall after that. She is last attested as a little orphan girl in Wapping or Stepney in London in 1695. John Hall, author of a biography on Ferdinand's father Theodore, believes the girl died as an infant in the same year of her birth, though he doesn't provide any evidence for her supposed death. He finishes his biography on Ferdinand's father by discussing the various legends and myths associated with the family and their rare portrayals in subsequent fiction: