gallery
A Portrait Gallery
Robert Rich
Warwick Tribe or Parish was named for Robert Rich (1587-1658), 2nd Earl of Warwick. He was one of the original members of the Somers Islands Company (14 June 1614). He eventually turned his attention exclusively to management
of the Bermudas and Providence Companies. He owned 14 shares when Norwood prepared his survey. He was a Puritan member of Parliament, was deeply involved in both the Virginia and the Bermuda Companies as was his first cousin Sir Nathaniel Rich.
He was made Knight of the Order of the bath at the coronation of James I when only 16. One of the original members of the Bermuda Company, he was devoted to furthering his own and the Company's interests. He turned to the risky Elizabethan practice of privateering. He sent
his ship the "Treasurer" under Capt Daniel Elfrith to the Caribbean and brought riches and trouble in the form of a rift between the Virginia and Bermuda Companies. He also brought slavery to both English colonies when, in 1619, Capt Elfrith captured blacks fro the Spanish Main
and left some in Virginia, some in Bermuda to work on the Rich plantations. His father died 1619 and he became the 2nd Earl of Warwick. As a member of the Council of the New England Company of Adventurers, he signed the patent for the new colony in Plymouth, and then
secured patents for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Connecticut settlement at Saybrrok, and Providence Plantation at Narragansett Bay. After the dissolution of the Virginia Co, he served on the Royal Council for Virginia and was governor of the Bermuda Company, most of the
time between 1628 & 1650. In 1643, Parliament made him lord high admiral and governor in chief of all English islands and plantations subject ot the Crown. His grandson married Cromwell's daughter. He died in 1658 at the age of 71.