Dear Sir,

I am writing in response to Christopher Famous’ statement, quoted in the March 21, 2026 edition of The Royal Gazette under the headline ‘Minister takes aim at Richards’ Caricom claims’.

Mr Famous is quoted as stating in the House of Assembly: “When do we as Bermudian people understand we didn’t just fall from the sky? We didn’t come from America. We didn’t come from England. Some came from the Azores, yes. We, for the most part, came from the Caribbean …”

His declaration “We didn’t come from England” is factually incorrect. Bermuda was an uninhabited archipelago when Richard Moore and 60 men, women and children from England arrived on the Plough in 1612 to set up a colony financed by the Virginia Company based in London. Rosemary Jones in Bermuda Five Centuries notes: “The first group of English settlers in Bermuda [laid] the physical and cultural foundations for the next 400 years” (p. 32).

Ms Jones also notes on page 154 “Hundreds of West Indian immigrants began arriving in Bermuda in the 1890s and by the start of the 20th Century the community made up close to 20 per cent of the island’s population.” Those facts do not support the claim: “We, for the most part, came from the Caribbean.”

I urge Mr Famous, when discussing our Bermudian history, to follow the advice of his fellow MP Alexa Lightbourne and “[proceed] on the basis of facts”.

JENNIFER HIND

Hamilton Parish