William Campbell Adderley (1846-1892) MHA for City District (1889 until sudden death 1892) and Cleophas Adderley (elected 1967 by-election and 1968 General Election) were not related, as far as can be discerned, given available history. However, these men do share a particular distinction in Bahamian history.
William Campbell Adderley elected in 1889 and Cleophas Adderley UBP, elected in a by-election, after Sir Stafford Sands resigned his City District seat in 1967, and again in 1968, were black men who represented the coveted City District of New Providence.
William Campbell Adderley MHA City District (1889-1892), son of Alliday Adderley died while a sitting Member of the House of Assembly.
William Campbell Adderley was the son of Alliday Adderley, uncle of Wilfred Parliament Adderley and grand-uncle of Alfred Francis (A. F.) Adderley.
Adderley became a shop owner, landowner and president of the Bahama Friendly Society.
The Bahama Friendly Society, was first created, after slavery ended in 1834. It began as a savings cooperative to help bury blacks and provide charity to widows and orphans.
1889 – W. C. Adderley’s Candidate Notice to Free and Independent Electors of the City of Nassau
William Campbell Adderley becomes one of FOUR representatives for the City District in 1889.
Campbell Adderley garnered the highest number of votes in the Grant’s Town Market polling division. Adderley got 153 votes. Remember that only men could vote and the plural voting system was in effect; that is, if you owned a business, you could also cast a company vote as well.
William Campbell Adderley died while a sitting Member of the Assembly. His death was given one brief sentence. There was no obituary, no explanatory mention of his life.
William Campbell Adderley had not been dead a week, before others began vying for his City District seat.
William Campbell Adderley died on Thursday 30th June 1892 from inflammation of the kidneys. Adderley was only 46 years old. He was born around 1846.
William Campbell Adderley was President of Bahama Friendly Society, the African burial, savings and charity society, founded after slavery.
Bahama Friendly Society wasted no time in electing a new president in the wake of the death of William Campbell Adderley. They elected the VP, Joseph A. Rolle to be the new president. Joseph Rolle then decides to run for the City District. He later withdraws his bid.
1949 – Comment that there was ONLY ONE COLOURED MAN to ever represent the CITY DISTRICT; and that was William Campbell Adderley
1967 – Cleophas Adderley (UBP) wins City seat in by-election after Sir Stafford Sands resigns. Adderley admonishes white Bahamians that they caused the PLP to win because they stayed away from the polls!
The hasty resignation of Sir Stafford Sands, in 1967, after the Progressive Liberal Party’s narrow win in January 1967, forced a bitterly contested by-election.
The UBP chose a negro, Cleophas Adderley, to run against PLP candidate Milo Butler Jr.
Cleophas Adderley admonished white Bahamians to put aside their hesitancy towards voting for a black man. Adderley told a crowd in July 1967, that it was the white people who caused the PLP to win, because they did not show up for the UBP at the polls.
