Home

Birmingham Philatelic Society

The Stamps and History of The Principality of Trinidad (part 2)

Now divorced from his wife, a professional career in tatters, Harden-Hickey sought a new challenge and set off on a one year around the world voyage. Departing on board the ship Astoria in the Autumn of 1888 from London, he may well have spied the remote island of Trinidad (not to be confused with the well known island of Trinidad, which belonged to the West Indies) on his travels via the South Atlantic. Experiences in Asia and the Far East inspired him to write a book on Buddhism.

In 1890, Harden-Hickey moved to America, settled in New York and married Miss Annie Harper Flagler, daughter of the millionaire financier John H. Flagler. Tired of his father-in-law’s unromantic business world of Florida hotels, cattle ranches, mines and oil, James Aloysius suddenly announced on the front page of the New York Tribune, dated Sunday, November 5^th, 1893, of his taking possession of the uninhabited island of Trinidad with the title “King James the First of the Principality of Trinidad”.

Perhaps inspired by the British writer and adventurer E. F. Knight whose books “The Cruise of the Falcon” in 1881 and further adventures on board the “Alerte” in 1889 in search of pirate treasure on this remote 5 mile by 3mile island in the South Atlantic, Knight wrote “…. Trinidad certainly appeared a wild and uninviting spot, a precipitous mass of barren volcanic rock, with lofty inaccessible summits, the whole surface being studded with sharp needle-like peaks….” just cannot explain why he turned his attention to this unattractive rocky isle.

A chancellery was set up at 217, West 36^th Street, New York and Harden-Hickey’s Parisian friend,

Count de la Boissiere, was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. Bonds were sold to encourage settlers and investors and a set of postage stamps, printed in Vienna, Austria, was issued.

On October 15^th, 1894, the Trinidad Chancellery in New York, issued an official decree from “Postal Administration of the Principality of Trinidad” announcing the issue of a set of postage stamps.

The public is hereby informed that on the first day of November, 1894, the following postage stamps will be issued:

5 centimes, colour green and black

10 centimes, colour brown and black

25 centimes, colour blue and black

50 centimes, colour orange and black

75 centimes, colour lilac and black

1 franc, colour vermilion and black

5 francs, colour grey and black

These postage stamps have the form of a rectangle, with a view of the Island of Trinidad.

In addition;

Envelopes at 5 centimes and 15 centimes on white and buff paper.

Postcards at 5, 10 and 10x10 centimes on buff card with the stamp similar to the postage stamps.

Lettercards at 15 centimes on bluish and rose card.

Trinidad , October 15^th, 1894 (L.S.)

The Chancellor, Cte, de la Boissiere.