John Tinker (colonial administrator)

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John Tinker (1700–1758) was an English colonial administrator. He worked for the Royal African Company on the Gold Coast, served as governor of Cape Coast Castle in 1722, and later led the South Sea Company’s Panama factory at Portobello, organizing slave imports under the Asiento. He became Royal Governor of the Bahama Islands from 1741 to 1758.

He was born and baptized on 30 July 1700 in Westminster, the son of Jeremiah and Hannah Tinker. His grandfather was Captain John Tinker, a naval officer at Deptford. In 1727/28 he married Isabella Bladen, daughter of Martin Bladen; they had two sons, John Bladen Tinker and Jeremiah Tinker. He later had a relationship with Sophia Trigge in the Bahamas.

Tinker arrived as Governor of the Bahamas in April 1741. He strengthened Nassau’s defenses by building Fort Montagu and Bladen’s Battery. He faced political trouble when the Assembly resisted new taxes, eventually dissolving the Assembly to keep paying the government. Privateering against enemy ships kept the economy afloat, though farming and other industries suffered.

A Freemason, Tinker attended a major Masonic procession in Philadelphia in 1755 with Benjamin Franklin. He died on 10 July 1758 in Nassau and was buried there.