Jarvis Couchman

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Jarvis Couchman
Person Jarvis Couchman
Title Captaine
First name Jarvis
Middle name(s)
Last name Couchman
Suffix
Spouse of
Widow of
Occupation Mariner
Secondary shorebased occupation
Mariner occupation Master
Associated with ship(s) Truelove (Master: Jarvis Couchman), Endymion (Master: Jarvis Couchman)
Training Not apprentice
Is apprentice of
Was apprentice of
Had apprentice(s)
Citizen Unknown
Literacy Signature
Has opening text Jervaise Couchman
Has signoff text Jarvis Couchman
Signoff image (Invalid transcription image)
Language skills English language
Has interpreter
Birth street
Birth parish
Birth town
Birth county
Birth province
Birth country
Res street
Res parish Stepney
Res town
Res county Middlesex
Res province
Res country England
Birth year
Marriage year
Death year 1656
Probate date October 2, 1657
First deposition age
Primary sources
Act book start page(s) HCA 3/47 f.32v Annotate
Personal answer start page(s)
Allegation start page(s)
Interrogatories page(s)
Deposition start page(s)
Chancery start page(s)
Letter start page(s)
Miscellaneous start page(s)
Act book date(s)
Personal answer date(s) Feb 14 1652
Allegation date(s)
Interrogatories date(s)
Deposition date(s)
How complete is this biography?
Has infobox completed Yes
Has synthesis completed No
Has HCA evidence completed No
Has source comment completed No
Ship classification
Type of ship Merchant ship
Silver Ship litigation in 1650s
Role in Silver Ship litigation None


Biographical synthesis

Jarvis Couchman (alt. Jervaise; Gervaise Couchman; Captaine Couchman) (b. ?; d. ca. 1656, on voyage).

Master of the ship the Truelove from December 1643 until January 1648.[1]

Master of the three hundred ton Endymion (alt. Endimion) on a voyage to the East Indies in 1655 and 1656

Continued to be resident in Stepney prior to his death. Died on a voyage of the Endymion sometime in 1655 or 1656.

The will of Jarvis Couchman, mariner of Stepney, was proved on October 2nd 1657.[2]

Evidence from High Court of Admiralty

Jarvis Couchman gave personal answers in the High Court of Admiralty in February 1652. The libel or allegation to which Jarvis Couchman responded in his personal answers was made by Thomas and William Northey, who claimed to be partowners of the ship the Truelove. Couchman stated that he served as master by the order and appointment of Captaine Richard Crandley and some others, and was unaware that Thomas and William Northey were also partowners. The personal answers are undated, but were probably made on February 14th 1652, or at the latest before February 23rd of the same year.[3]

Jarvis Couchman had been master of the ship the Truelove between December 1643 and January 1648.[4] During this period he made six voyages in the ship. For these six voyages Couchman stated he received "in the whole in case the same can bee receaved the summe of £2995-03-04 d". Of this amount "£2100 whereof this rendent beleeveth is yet oweing from the state fr service donne by the sid shippe within the foresaid time every sixteenth parte whereof doth amounte unto the summe of £187-03-111/2". The ship, he remembered, was of the burthen of 200 tons "and was worth to bee lett to freight the freighters victualling and paying mens wages the summe of £60 per moneth".[5]

Jonathan Lee, a thirty-six year old mariner of Ratcliff, had been on the ship the Endymion under Jarvis Couchman. Lee deposed on November 14th 1657 in the High Court of Admiralty, saying that "within the said yeeres 1655 and 1656 and monethes therein respectively concurring the said Gouvernour and Company of English merchants trading to East India sent diverse of their shipps to those parts, which arived there in safetie, and that they had at the said East Indies and parts thereabouts in the said time the shipps the Endymion (whereof first Gervase Couchman and after his death John Garrard was commannder)".[6]

Comment on sources

1654

"PARISH OF SAINT OLAVE HART STREET, LONDON. BURIALS. 1654. May 23 Margarett wife of Capt. Richard Crandley, carried from hence to Stepney : in a valt there"[7]

1655

"PARISH OF SAINT OLAVE HART STREET, LONDON. BURIALS. 1655. Dec. 12 Aldm Richard Crandley: chancell"[8]

1657

PROB 11/270/6 Will of Jarvis Couchman, Mariner of Stepney, Middlesex. 02 October 1657

1658

Primum Decretum in the High Court of Admiralty, dated May 26th 1658, in the cause of "Alexander Rignolds against the shippe called the Endimion"[9]
  1. HCA 13/124 f.150v
  2. PROB 11/270/6 Will of Jarvis Couchman, Mariner of Stepney, Middlesex. 02 October 1657
  3. HCA 13/124 f.150v
  4. HCA 13/124 f.150v
  5. HCA 13/124 f.151r
  6. HCA 13/72 f.486v
  7. W. Bruce Bannerman (ed.), The registers of St. Olave, Hart street, London, 1563-1700 (London, 1916), p.186
  8. W. Bruce Bannerman (ed.), The registers of St. Olave, Hart street, London, 1563-1700 (London, 1916), p.188
  9. HCA 24/113 Item 124 IMG_111_10_3627-3634