The Standing of New Subjects: Grenada and the Protestant Constitution after the Treaty of Paris (1763)

Abstract

In November 1767, Jean-Baptiste Domonchy, a French Catholic on the British island of Grenada, sparked an imperial crisis when he attempted to stand for election to the island's assembly. The incorporation of French Catholic subjects into the British Empire after the Treaty of Paris (1763) posed major challenges to prevailing notions of the empire and constitution. At a time when many Britons understood the Protestant faith to be fundamental to the stability of the British state and empire, the large populations of Catholics in the new territories necessitated a reappraisal of exclusionist policies. In demanding, and ultimately gaining, the right to hold office in Grenada's political and legal bodies, the crown's new Catholic subjects generated a crisis that played a crucial role in the formulation of a new model of empire. Utilising the print debate surrounding the decision to allow Catholic subjects to hold public office in Grenada, this article examines contemporary attitudes to toleration within an imperial context and defines the wider implications of the crisis. Whatever their view, contemporaries agreed that Grenada stood at the centre of a broader imperial and constitutional debate. In an increasingly heterogeneous empire where the formation of loyal and stable colonies was a fundamental goal of the British state, the case for a more flexible ideal of empire and the constitution gained traction in the dispute over Grenada. The centrality of the Catholic question to the foundations of the British state makes Grenada a critical test case in the contemporary debates over the nature of the British Empire after 1763.