English Tangier Tangier was a possession of England from 1661 to 6 February 1684 , when it was evacuated and returned to being part of Morocco . History . English take possession . In 1661 King Charles II married the Portuguese Catherine of Braganza , and as part of her dowry Charles received the ports of Tangier and Bombay . As soon as Charles and Catherine ' s marriage treaty had been signed , Admiral Edward Montagu , 1st Earl of Sandwich , was sent to take possession of Tangier . Tangier commanded the entry into the Mediterranean and was the principal commercial centre on the North West coast of Africa . However , there had been years of conflict between the Portuguese garrison and the Moroccans . On 6 September 1661 , King Charles appointed Henry Mordaunt , 2nd Earl of Peterborough , as Governor and Captain General of all the forces in Tangier . When Peterborough landed he found the town derelict and under constant attack from some 17 , 000 Berbers . The Tangier Regiment ( later known as the 2nd Regiment of Foot ) arrived in Tangier on 29 January 1662 , and was joined by former Parliamentarian companies from the garrison of Dunkirk and by two units from the Royalist Force which had been serving in Flanders ; they officially took over Tangier from Montagu ' s small naval garrison . The Regiment remained in Tangier for 23 years , until the port was finally evacuated in 1684 . Three additional regiments from the Dunkirk garrison were also placed under Peterborough ' s command , and he arrived in Tangier with a force of five hundred horse and two thousand foot , with between two and three hundred soldiers ' wives , to serve in a domestic capacity . This was the first time that wives had officially accompanied an English army on an overseas posting . The Portuguese government was not in the least reluctant to part with Tangier . The anchorage was unsafe for shipping , and beyond the landward fortifications lived the Moroccans , who were looking for an opportunity to take back the city . The Portuguese inhabitants were not happy with these arrangements and departed on English ships , leaving a new civilian population made up of only the wives and families of the English military . Work began on a fortified harbour at the end of November . It was to be six hundred yards long , thirty feet deep at low tide , and capable of keeping out the roughest of seas . Each redoubt had four hundred men guarding the excavation site , while to the front balls of spikes , stakes and piles of gunpowder - and - stone mix , which acted as basic landmine s , were laid . Tangier declared a free city . On 4 June 1668 , Tangier was declared a free city by charter , with a mayor and corporation to govern it instead of the army . In 1674 , William O ' Brien , 2nd Earl of Inchiquin took up the post of Governor . In 1675 , a garrison school was founded , led by the Rev . Dr George Mercer . On 30 December 1676 , Charles ordered a survey of the city and garrison of Tangier , which was costing about £140 , 000 a year to maintain . The survey showed that the total inhabitants numbered 2 , 225 , of whom fifty were army officers , 1 , 231 other ranks , with 302 army wives and children . Amongst the buildings was a hospital and an army school . In 1680 , the pressure from the Moroccans increased , as the Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail joined forces with the Chief of Fez in order to pursue a war against all foreign troops in his land . Reinforcements were needed at the Garrison , which was raised to 3 , 000 in number . Also in 1680 the Earl of Inchiquin resigned and was replaced by Thomas Butler , 6th Earl of Ossory , who died before taking up his post . The Royal Scots , shortly followed by a further foot regiment , the 2nd Tangier Regiment raised on 13 July 1680 , were sent to Tangier . The new regiment was accompanied by the King ' s Battalion , which was formed from the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards . The Battalion landed in July 1680 , and fierce attacks were made against the Moors , who had gained a footing on the edge of the town , finally defeating them by controlled and well - aimed musket fire . The Battalion remained in Tangier until the fort was abandoned . Growing concerns about the cost of the colony . For some time Parliament had been concerned about the cost of maintaining the Tangier garrison . By 1680 the King had threatened to give up Tangier unless the supplies were voted for its sea defences , intended to provide a safe harbour for shipping . The fundamental problem was that in order to keep the town and harbour free from cannon fire the perimeter of the defended area had to be vastly increased . A number of outworks were built but the siege of 1680 showed that the Moroccans were capable of isolating and capturing these outworks by entrenchments and mining . The garrison at Tangier had to be constantly reinforced , having cost nearly two million pounds of royal treasure , and many lives had been sacrificed in its defence . Merchant ships continued to be harassed by Barbary pirates , and undefended crews were regularly captured into slavery . The so - called Popish Plot in England had intensified the dread of Catholicism , and the King ' s frequent request for more troops to increase the size of the garrison raised suspicions that a standing army was being retained in Tangier to ensure a Catholic succession and absolute monarchy . In October 1680 , Colonel Charles FitzCharles , 1st Earl of Plymouth , arrived as Governor , but was taken mortally ill soon afterwards . Colonel Edward Sackville took over the governorship temporarily . On 20 December 1680 , the House of Commons of England petitioned the King to give his assent to a Bill of Exclusion to disinherit the Duke of York ; adding that , unless and until the bill was passed , Parliament could not give any supplies to Charles . The King refused to sacrifice his brother ' s right of succession to save Tangier . On 28 December 1680 Colonel Percy Kirke was appointed Colonel and Governor . Evacuation of Tangier . Finally , in 1683 , Charles gave Admiral Lord Dartmouth secret orders to abandon Tangier . Dartmouth was to level the fortifications , destroy the harbour , and evacuate the troops . In August 1683 Dartmouth , as Admiral of the Fleet and captain general in Tangier , sailed from Plymouth . He was accompanied by Samuel Pepys who wrote an account of the evacuation . All the forts and walls were mined for last - minute destruction . On 5 February 1684 Tangier was officially evacuated , leaving the town in ruins , thereafter Kirke ' s Regiment returned to England . One of Lord Dartmouth ' s main concerns was the evacuation of sick soldiers " and the many families and their effects to be brought off " . The hospital ship " Unity " sailed for England on 18 October 1683 with 114 invalid soldiers and 104 women and children , alongside HMS Diamond . HMS Diamond arrived at The Downs on 14 December 1683 . The main force of 2 , 830 officers and men and 361 wives and children finally completed the demolition of the harbour wall and fortifications , and evacuated the garrison during the early months of 1684 . The 2nd Tangier Regiment left late in the second week of February for Plymouth with some six hundred men and thirty wives and children . The Earl of Dumbarton ' s regiment went into quarters at Rochester , and Trelawney ' s Regiment to Portsmouth . Before leaving , Dartmouth was able to purchase the release of many English prisoners from Ismail ' s bagnio , including several officers and about 40 men , some of whom had spent 10 years in the hands of the Moroccans . Some of the departing soldiers were to be rewarded with large land grants in the newly acquired Province of New York . Thomas Dongan , 2nd Earl of Limerick , a Lieutenant - Governor of Tangier , became New York Provincial Governor and William " Tangier " Smith , the last mayor of Tangier , obtained 50 miles of Atlantic Ocean front property on Long Island .