A proprietor is defined as one who has the legal right or exclusive title to anything. It is one who holds the title to a thing in his own right. It was a common feature in English land law that for every piece of land there must be a proprietor who exercised control over it. The land across the great pond certainly offered the upper classes [in England] a way to generate income from large estates.
The "Crown" had the sole power to make original land grants in the new lands. This was the case for the new lands called Carolina. A group of men became the "proprietors" of the area which included the Bahamas. There goal was to make money. These men were:
1) George Duke of Albemarle, Master of his Majesty's Horse
2) Edward Earl of Clarendon
3) William Earl of Craven
4) John Lord Berkley
5) Anthony Lord Ashley Chancellor of the Exchequer
6) Sir George Carteret, Vice Chamberlain of his Majesty's Household
7) Sir William Berkley, Knight
8) Sir Peter Colleton, Baronet
"....the true and absolute lords proprietors of all the province of Carolina." [May 1, 1668]
The "Instructions for Granting Lands in Carolina November 21, 1682" can be found in Foundations of Colonial America, A Documentary History, Vol. III - Part 2 : Southern Colonies, Edited by W. Keith Kavenagh, pp. 2468 - 2475. It was under these instructions that Cadwallader Jones (JO-1) was appointed governor of the Bahamas by this group of proprietors on November 14, 1689.
