George James Bruere

Lieutenant-Colonel George James Bruere ( – 10 September 1780) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as governor of Bermuda from 1764 until his death in 1780. Of all Bermuda's governors since 1612, his term of office was the longest. He had a difficult time during the American Revolutionary War and is thought to have died of chronic stress caused by the interplay of Bermudians and American rebels. Life Born about 1721, on 17 July 1743 Bruere married Elizabeth Neale, daughter of Richard Neale by his marriage to Anne Pendock, in St Mary's Church, Nottingham, England. After an early career as a British Army officer, Bruere was appointed Governor of Bermuda in 1764. Previously serving in the army with the rank of lieutenant colonel, he arrived in Bermuda on the Prince of Wales in August 1764, bringing with him his wife and nine children. He has been described as "a benign, simple and kindly man with a large family" and by the historian Sir John William Kaye as "a staunch royalist... loyal to the core". However, Kaye reports further that - Governorship of Bermuda On taking up his appointment as governor, Bruere was taken aback by the way slaves were treated in the Bermuda islands. He made a speech to the House of Assembly of Bermuda in 1766 in which he proposed the need for stricter controls, including "...haveing the Doors lock'd where they are, under the inspection of a white Person". Familiar with the control of slaves in other colonies, he advised the Bermudians: