Archaeologists in Bermuda have discovered the body of a former Governor of the British colony, buried beneath the floorboards of a church with no vault or memorial. George Bruerne was identified from a coffin plate recording his burial in 1780 at the age of 59, but the cause of his death is not yet known.

The archaeologist Brent Fortenberry tells how Bruerne was Governor of the islands from 1764 to 1780, at the time of the American Revolution. He suffered the indignity of some of his citizens plundering a gunpowder store and giving the munitions to the revolting colonists on the mainland, where it was used against British forces. Bruerne offered a reward for the capture of the Bermudians responsible, but to no avail.

Governor Bruerne’s skeleton was found during investigations below St Peter’s Church in the town of St George’s this summer.

“The coffin had disintegrated, but a copper plate with his details, originally attached to the top, was found in the chest cavity,” Mr Fortenberry said.

“I would have thought he would have been buried with full ceremony because he was someone of eminence. There has been no indication before that this practice of burying people beneath floorboards was done here. It is thought that his body was going to be shipped back to England. But it seems that never happened.”

A second burial encountered by Fortenberry’s team from Boston University under the floorboards of St Peter’s was that of Sir Jacob Wheate, captain of HMS Cerberus, a 32-gun fifth-rater which sank after hitting rocks in 1783. Historical records suggest that Sir Jacob died of yellow fever, not from the wreck: his skeleton, found in a hollow cut into the limestone bedrock in front of the pulpit, was also identified from its coffin plate.

“He should have had a more substantial burial, but we think they may have buried him quickly because he had yellow fever,” Fortenberry told Bermuda’s Royal Gazette. From the circumstances of Governor Bruerne’s interment near by, he may also have died of the disease.