360 Years of Ligons Pour out and Pore over Rum

“… the drinke of the Iland, which is made of the skimmings of the Coppers, that boyle the Sugar, which they call kill-Divell.”  From A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados, Richard Ligon, 1657, London.

Kill-Divell is the earliest reference in recorded history to rum.  Based upon Richard Ligon’s travels to Barbados circa 1647. 

Indeed, my very own ancestor Richard was the first to write about rum.  He documented the emergence of kill-divell (aka kill-devil) from its origin in Barbados in the 1600’s. 

Ironically, I discovered this ancestral connection when I Googled my own name to see if this rum blog was being found by the search engines.  Imagine my reaction when the top hits were all Richard Ligon from 1647.  An incredible 360 years after Richard Ligon was tasting and commenting on kill-divell in Barbados, this Ligon began a quest to find the best kill-divell descendent. 

The full quote from Uncle Richard’s book is “We are seldome drye or thirsty, unlesse we overheat our bodyes with extraordinary labour, or drinking strong drinks; as of our English spirits, which we carry over, of french Brandy, or the drinke of the Iland, which is made of the skimmings of the Coppers, that boyle the Sugar, which they call kill-Divell.” 

Apparently not only did I get my interest in rum from Uncle Richard, but also my spelling skills.  I copied and pasted this passage from his book into Word and Spellcheck overloaded.  The only words spelled correctly were capitalized wrong.  A message asked me if I wanted to submit an error report to Microsoft.  The detail in the message said that in proofing spelling,  anytime 20% of the words are incorrect, they assume Spellcheck is malfunctioning.  Hey, this is rum.  I figure 80 proof is normal, right?  

Uncle Richard's book is in the Smithstonian.  This blog--probably headed for another type of institution.  


If you are interested in Richard Ligon's legacy, here's the best article about him.

http://www.britishfoodinamerica.com/Another-Caribbean-Number-featuring-Jamaica/the-lyrical/An-appreciation-of-Richard-Ligon-featuring-some-discussion-of-a-new-book-The-Sugar-Barons-Family-Corruption-Empire-and-War-by-Matthew-Parker/