Tools: Company of Merchant Adventurers of London

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Background


Members of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London were involved in the export of English cloth, especially undyed, white, broadcloth. The MarineLives wiki contains references to a number of London merchants, and English merchants based in Hamburg, Amsterdam, Dordrecht and Rotterdam, who were members of, or connected with, the Company of Merchant Adventurers. The MarineLives project team wants to identify all these references and to pull them together on this wiki page. This will form a finding aid for all researchers interested in the C17th cloth trade, and more broadly in the trade for textiles. It will also serve as an input into the research work of Dr Tom Leng (Sheffield), who is currently writing a book on 'Disorderly Brethren: the Merchant Adventurers of England, c.1588-1688'.


Possible search terms to help identify Merchant Adventurers


Please help the MarineLives team identify members of the Company of Merchant Adventures of London in our 6 million word full text transcription wiki.

Search the wiki, do some sleuthing, and tweet us suggested names and wiki page references. We will add your findings to the wiki, with references and acknowledgement.

Many of the members of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London will not be identified as such, but can be presumed to be members through a combination of their export trade in cloth (and other goods), their location, their trading partners and secondary information you will need to look for on the web.

Here are some search terms for our wiki you might want to get started with

Adventurer
Cloth
Cloath
Cloth merchant
Cloth-merchant
Draper
Haberdasher
Mercer
Merchant + Hamburg
Merchant + Rotterdam

and lots lots more...



Merchant adventurers resident in London & surrounds


Definite

Sir Nicholas Crispe (b. ?; d. 1666) London merchant[1]
Arthur Tyndale (b. ?; d. ca. 1625) Mercer and Merchant Adventurer of London[2]
Nathaniell Tyndale (b. ?; d. ca. 1631). Mercer and Merchant Adventurer of London[3]
Samuell Tyndale (b. ?; d. ca. 1673). Merchant Adventurer of London[4]

Probable

Anthony Biddulph (b. ?; d. ca. 1651). Haberdasher of London.[5] J.R. Woodhead (1966) identifies the haberdasher Anthony Biddulph as a Merchant Adventurer.[6]
George Boldero [alt. Baldero] (b. ?; d. ca. 1666). London merchant[7]
Martin Bond (b.?; d. 1643). Haberdasher. Merchant Adventurer.[8]; [9]
Henry Crispe (b. ca. 1608; d. ca. 1654). Merchant and haberdasher. Dealing in cloth and other commodities, which he imported into and exported from Hamburg for twenty years. Given his involvement in cloth, and past long residence in Hamburg, it is possible that Henry Crispe was a member of the Company of the Merchant Adventurers of London, which had a staple in Hamburg. Resident in 1653 in the parish of Saint Antholin Budge Row, London. He had been resident in Hamburg as recently as 1649, and possibly up to the start of war with the Dutch in late 1652.[10] Basil Duke Henning (1983) state that Henry Crispe was married to Elizabeth Biddulph, daughter of Anthony Biddulph (b.?; d. ca. 1651), a London haberdasher.[11] J.R. Woodhead (1966) identifies the haberdasher Anthony Biddulph as a Merchant Adventurer.[12] Henry Crispe's first son was the eponymous Henry Crispe (b. ca. 1650, Hamburg; d. 1700), of Aldermanbury, London. The son was educated as a lawyer and became common serjeant iin 1678. He was elected to parliament in 1685.[13] Henry Crispe deposed in the High Court of Admiralty in October 1653. His knowledge was based on twenty years trading from Hamburg and thereabouts "in cloath and divers other sorts of commodities there most vendible and the like for the parts of Holland before the present troubles in such commodities as were there most advantagious". He suggested that Hamburg merchants tended to transport pepper and spices from Hamburg into the upper parts of Germany, Bohemia, Hungary and some parts of Poland, where better prices could be achieved than at Hamburg.[14]
Richard Ford (alt. Sir Richard Ford) (b. ca. 1613, d. ca. 1678). Merchant. Active in 1650s as a naval supplier, working in partnership with his son-in-law, Peter Proby, who had married Grace Ford.[15] Proby was the grandson of the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Peter Proby. Ford was an associate in the 1650s of Nathaniel Temms, John Dethick, John Bancks and Martin Noell, all men rising rapidly. He was one of the new subscribers to the New General Stock of the English East India Company in 1657 and was appointed to the six person committee which was established to negotiate with a six person committee of existing subscribers. His associates on the committee are revealing – they were Maurice Thompson, Alderman Temms, Alderman Noel, Thomas Kendall, and Samuel Moyer. He was thus an ally of Thompson, as Thompson inserted himself at the apex of the EEIC hierachy. Ford was appointed an EEIC committee in [?XXXX], knighted by Charles II in [?XXXX], and appointed by Charles to the Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations formed in 1660 under Charles II, together with his associate Martin Noell, who was similarly knighted. On March 14th [CHECK] 1662/3 he wrote with moderate familiarity to Oxenden, requesting a small favour. Steven Pincus asserts that Sir Richard Ford was one of the most important London merchants in the Restoration period.[16]
Obadiah Ingram (b. ?; d. ca. 1635). Merchant Adventurer of London.[17]
Thomas Newman (b. ?; d. ca. 1650). Draper and Merchant Adventurer of London.[18]

Possible

Mathew Tindall (b. ?; d. ?ca. 1676). London draper & trader in cloth
- "Mathew Tindall of London, trader in cloth"[19]

Merchant adventurers resident elsewhere in England


[ADD DATA]


Merchant adventurers resident in the United Provinces

Amsterdam


[ADD DATA]


Dordrecht


Definite

Henry Boldero [alt. Baldero] (b. ?; d. ca. 1661). Merchant Adventurer of Dordrecht. Treasurer of the Company.[20]
- "the said Mr Henry Baldero is of his this deponents certaine knowledge a native of England, and was borne at Berry in the County of Suffolk, where this deponent was likewise borne and the said Henry Baldero doth here (by this deponent who is his correspondent) pay taxes to this Comonwealth of England for lands which hee hath here in England and is ffree of the Company of the Merchant Adventurers of London and hath bin tresurer of the said company"[21]

Probable

Samuel Augier (b. ?; d. ca. 1667). Merchant Adventurer of Dordrecht.[22]
John Boldero [alt. Baldero] (b. ?; d. ca. 1664). Merchant in Dordrecht[23]
James Fenn (b. ?; d. ca. 1652)[24]

Rotterdam


Probable

William Cotton (b. ?1633; d. ca. 1655). Merchant Adventurer of Rottedam.[25] William Cotton deposed in the English High Court of Amiralty in November 1653 in support of Hendry Baldero (alt. Boldero). He stated that he was born at Colchester in Essex, but was now living at Rotterdam in Holland as servant and merchant cashier to Baldero. He gave his age as twenty-two. He added that "for many and divers yeares last past there hath bene an English Company of Merchant Adventurers resident in the Citty of Roterdam, and that the arlate Henry Baldero hath bene for a yeare now past and upwards treasurer of the sayd Companie of English merchants and so is att this present, and the sayd Henry Baldero was and is an Englishman and well affected to this nation and the government thereof, and that he hath of the certaine knowledge and sight of this deponent releived many English seamen that have bene taken prisoners in the service of this Commonwealth in the present troubles and hath procured the libertyes of many of them and provided shipping to transport them for England."[26]
James Fenn Merchant. Possiblly a mercer. Resident in Rotterdam, 1648-9.[27]

Possible

Thomas Clarke Merchant. Possibly a mercer. Resident in Rotterdam, 1645.[28]
Stephen Puckle (b. ca. 1595; d. >1652). Merchant of Estsmithfield, near London, and formerly Rotterdam. Deposed in the English High Court of Admiralty in November 1652. Puckle stated that "for the space of about twenty yeares next before the late warrs betwixt this Commonwealth and the United Provinces he did live, and reside with his family att Rotterdam in Holland, and by that meanes came to be well acquainted with the Dutch tongue".[29]
William Scapes (b. ca. 1606; d. ?). Merchant of Rotterdam. Deposed in English High Court of Admiralty in July 1651 regarding a ship in which he had ownership, which had gone to Norway to load deals, intended for sale in Newcastle for a return load of coal for Rotterdam.[30]

Location unclear


Just possible

William Harris.
- "the said Henry Baldero William Harris, and John Sheppard are all of them Englishmen borne, and subjects of this Comonwealth and live in Holland onely as merchant strangers. and not as subjects of the States of Holland. and saith that the said Henry Baldero is one of the Company of the Merchant Adventurers of England. which he knoweth for that hee hath bin imployed master of ships by the said Baldero Harris and Sheppard for theise three yeares last, And hath knowne them all [?theise] twelve yeeres last".[31]
John Sheppard
- "the said Henry Baldero William Harris, and John Sheppard are all of them Englishmen borne, and subjects of this Comonwealth and live in Holland onely as merchant strangers. and not as subjects of the States of Holland. and saith that the said Henry Baldero is one of the Company of the Merchant Adventurers of England. which he knoweth for that hee hath bin imployed master of ships by the said Baldero Harris and Sheppard for theise three yeares last, And hath knowne them all [?theise] twelve yeeres last".[32]


Merchant Adventurers resident in Hamburg


Probable

James Baber (b. ?; d. ca. 1686). Merchant of Hamburg[33] Possibly born in Somerset, ca. 1611. Resident in Hamburg, April 1656 & May 1656.
John Bancks (alt. John Banckes) Resident in Hamburg, April 1656 & May 1656.
Isaack Blackwell Resident in Hamburg, April 1656 & May 1656.
Richard Bradshaw Resident in Hamburg, April 1656 & May 1656.
Nathaniell Cambridge (b. ?; d. ca. 1694). Merchant of Hamburg. ?Clothier of Woodchester, Gloucestershire.
- "[August 1. 1666] Haveing with others hired a waggon, about foure aclock, wee went from Lubeck; and, feeding the horses about midnight at halfe way, wee arrived at Hamborg about midday. I tooke up my lodging in the Stone street, at the signe of the Towne Revall, where I had choice company of cavaliers, only a little more ranting as was fitting for my humour. I sent immediately for Mr. Nathaniell Cambridge, to whom I had letters of recommendation; with whom, being come, I consulted about my jorney further. By sea was exceedingly dangerous and uncertaine, and by land tedious and expensive, neither without hazard. He promised to ask advice of other ffreinds, and gave me his and their opinions, proffering me withall the kindness in his power."[34][35]
- "St. Loe (or St. Chloe) school [in Minchampton, Glucestershire) was founded by Nathaniel Cambridge, described as a merchant of Hamburg, who left £1,000 which was used in 1698 to purchase the Seinckley manor estate"[36]
Clement Clarke[37]
William Gore Resident in Hamburg, April 1656 & May 1656. Probate record for William Gore, merchant, bachelor of Hamburg, proven May 1685.[38]
David Hechstetter Resident in Hamburg, April 1656 & May 1656.
John Northley Resident in Hamburg, April 1656 & May 1656.
Robert Palmer, senior Resident in Hamburg, April 1656 & May 1656.
John Parker
Samuel(l) Richardson Resident in Hamburg, April 1656 & May 1656.
William Strange Resident in Hamburg, April 1656 & May 1656.
Francis Townley Resident in Hamburg in May 1656.[39]
Richard Twyford Resident in Hamburg, April 1656, 1658 & 1661.[40]; [41]

Possible

Onesipherous Albyne Merchant. ?Resident in Hamburg in 1658.[42]
Charles BanksMerchant. Possibly brother of John Banck(e)s, Hamburg merchant. Resident in Hamburg in 1661.[43]
Edward Halford 'Merchant. ?Resident in Hamburg in 1658.[44]
Thomas Lawrence Merchant. Resident in Hamburg in 1650 and also in ?1658.[45]
Samuel Missenden Probably a merchant. Possibly a mercer. Resident in Hamburg in 1679. Son, also named Samuel Missenden, apprenticed in 1679 to William Gore, Merchant Adventurer.[46] Probate record for Samuel Missenden, Deputy Governor of the Right Worshipfull Fellowship of Merchant Adventurers of England of Hamburg, proven Jan 1690.[47]
Tobias Payne (b. pre-1640; d.?). Merchant. Born Townhope in Hereford. Cashier with Alderman Adams in London, 1650-1653. Apprentice to Richard Twyford, Hamburg merchant, in Hamburg (1654-1662). Independent merchant in Hamburg (1663-1664). Time in Barbados and Jamaica, then to Boston, New Rngland in 1666, where he married Sarah Standish, widow of Captain Miles Standish and daughter of John Winslow, merchant of Boston.[48]

  1. ↑ PROB 11/319 Mico 1-46 Will of Nicholas Crispe of Hammersmith, Middlesex 05 April 1666
  2. ↑ PROB 11/147 Clarke 103-147 Will of Arthur Tyndale, Mercer and Merchant Adventure of London 25 November 1625
  3. ↑ PROB 11/160 St. John 69-138 Will of Nathaniell Tyndale, Mercer and Merchant Adventurer of London 10 December 1631
  4. ↑ PROB 11/343 Pye 119-167 Will of Samuell Tyndale, Merchant Adventurer of London 13 October 1673
  5. ↑ PROB 11/218/608 Will of Anthony Biddulphe or Biddulph, Haberdasher of City of London 28 October 1651
  6. ↑ 'Cooote (or Cooth), Edward' in J R Woodhead, 'Cade - Cutler', in The Rulers of London 1660-1689 A Biographical Record of the Aldermen and Common Councilment of the City of London (London, 1966), pp. 42-56. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-rulers/1660-89/pp42-56 [accessed 26 January 2018].
  7. ↑ PROB 11/319/509 Will of George Boldero, Merchant of London 14 March 1666
  8. ↑ A New View of London (London, 1708), vol. 1, p.280, accessed 26/01/2018
  9. ↑ PROB 11/201/175 Will of Martin Bond, Haberdasher of London 07 July 1647; PROB 11/201/753 Will of Martin Bond, Haberdasher of London 07 July 1648
  10. ↑ SP 82/7/f131 Henry Crispe to Walter Frost, Secretary to Council of State 1649 Aug 3
  11. ↑ http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/crispe-henry-1650-1700
  12. ↑ 'Cooote (or Cooth), Edward' in J R Woodhead, 'Cade - Cutler', in The Rulers of London 1660-1689 A Biographical Record of the Aldermen and Common Councilment of the City of London (London, 1966), pp. 42-56. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-rulers/1660-89/pp42-56 [accessed 26 January 2018].
  13. ↑ PROB 11/240/613 Will of Henry Crispe, Haberdasher of London 30 May 1654
  14. ↑ HCA 13/68 f.115r
  15. ↑ 'Ford, Richard,' in J.R. Woodhead, 'Fabian - Fyge', The Rulers of London 1660-1689: A biographical record of the Aldermen and Common Councilment of the City of London (1966), pp. 67-74, viewed 27/01/2018
  16. ↑ Steven C.A. Pincus, Protestantism and Patriotism: Ideologies and the Making of English Foreign Policy, 1650-1668 (Cambridge, 1996), p. 250 CHECK PAGE NUMBER
  17. ↑ PROB 11/167/467 Will of Obadiah Ingram, Merchant Adventurer, Draper of London 24 April 1635
  18. ↑ PROB 11/212/24 Will of Thomas Newman, Draper and Merchant Adventurer of London 05 April 1650
  19. ↑ From will of Throckmorton Trotman, London merchant, dated Oct 13, 1661, proved Oct. 24, 1663 in Lothrop Withington, Virginia gleanings in England: abstracts of 17th and 18th-century English wills and administrations relating to Virginia and Virginians : a consolidation of articles from The Virginia magazine of history and biography (XXXX, 1980 (reprint)), p. 58; possibly same Mathew Tindall (alt. Tyndale) as in PROB 11/352 Will of Mathew Tyndale, Draper of London 02 December 1676 Bence 109-158
  20. ↑ PROB 11/304/17 Will of Henry Boldero, Merchant Adventurer of Dordrecht, Holland 03 April 1661
  21. ↑ HCA 13/73 f.140r
  22. ↑ PROB 11/323/624 Will of Samuel Augier, Merchant Adventurer of Dordrecht, Holland 22 May 1667
  23. ↑ PROB 11/315/49 Will of John Boldero, Merchant in Dordrecht, Holland 16 September 1664
  24. ↑ PROB 11/221/107 Will of James Fenn, Merchant Adventurer of Rotterdam, Holland 11 March 1652
  25. ↑ PROB 11/250/566 Will of William Cotton, Merchant Adventurer of Rotterdam 31 October 1655
  26. ↑ HCA 13/68 f.235r
  27. ↑ C. Te Lintum, De Merchant Adventurers in De Nederlanden ('s-Gravenhage, 1905) pp. 264-5; 'Fen, James (male), merchant, now resident in Rotterdam, Mercer's archive. Event: Apprenticeship. Role: Father of apprentice. Apprentice: Richard Fen (male). Master: Samuel Mico, one of merchants trading into the Levant, member of Mercer's company' in Records of London Livery Companies Online, Apprentices and Freemen 1400-1900, web resource, accessed, 27/01/2017
  28. ↑ 'Apprenticeship of Daniel Clarke, son of Thomas Clarke, to master Rowland Wynne, of the Mercer's company' in Records of London Livery Companies Online, Apprentices and Freemen 1400-1900, web resource, accessed, 27/01/2017
  29. ↑ HCA 13/70 f.717v
  30. ↑ HCA 13/65 f.26r
  31. ↑ HCA 13/73 f.141v
  32. ↑ HCA 13/73 f.141v
  33. ↑ PROB 11/383/228 Will of James Baber, Merchant of Hamburg 28 May 1686
  34. ↑ XXX, Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries: A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699, vol. 30 (?Aberdeen, 1859), p. 60
  35. ↑ PROB 11/329 Coke 1-56 Will of Nathaniell Cambridge of Woodchester, Gloucestershire 25 February 1669; PROB 11/422 Box 187-224 Will of Nathaniel Cambridge, Clothier of Woodchester, Gloucestershire 16 August 1694
  36. ↑ A P Baggs, A R J Jurica and W J Sheils, 'Minchinhampton: Education', in A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 11, Bisley and Longtree Hundreds, ed. N M Herbert and R B Pugh (London, 1976), p. 205. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol11/p205 [accessed 26 January 2018].
  37. ↑ A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe (London, 1742), vol.3, p.606
  38. ↑ PROB 11/380/42 Will of William Gore, Merchant, Bachelor of Hamburgh 06 May 1685
  39. ↑ A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe (London, 1742), vol.3, p.606
  40. ↑ 'The Company to John Bancks (at Hamburg), March 12, 1658', in Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), Calendar of Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1655-1659 (Oxford, 1916), p.239, accessed 27/01/2018
  41. ↑ 'Entry Book: September 1661', in Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 1, 1660-1667, ed. William A Shaw (London, 1904), pp. 281-289. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-treasury-books/vol1/pp281-289 [accessed 27 January 2018].
  42. ↑ 'The Company to John Bancks (at Hamburg), March 12, 1658', in Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), Calendar of Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1655-1659 (Oxford, 1916), p.239, accessed 27/01/2018
  43. ↑ 'Entry Book: September 1661', in Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 1, 1660-1667, ed. William A Shaw (London, 1904), pp. 281-289. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-treasury-books/vol1/pp281-289 [accessed 27 January 2018].
  44. ↑ 'The Company to John Bancks (at Hamburg), March 12, 1658', in Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), Calendar of Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1655-1659 (Oxford, 1916), p.239, accessed 27/01/2018
  45. ↑ 'The Company to John Bancks (at Hamburg), March 12, 1658', in Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), Calendar of Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1655-1659 (Oxford, 1916), p.239, accessed 27/01/2018
  46. ↑ 'Apprenticeship of Samuel Missenden, son ofSamuel Missenden, resident in Hamburg, to master William Gore, merchant adventurer, location unknown, of the Mercer's company' in Records of London Livery Companies Online, Apprentices and Freemen 1400-1900, web resource, accessed, 27/01/2017
  47. ↑ PROB 11/398/101 Will of Samuel Missenden, Deputy Governor of the Right Worshipful fellowship of Merchant Adventurers of England of Hamburg 18 January 1690
  48. ↑ Tobias Payne, 'A short abstract of the course of my life', in John Demos, Remarkable Providences: Readings on Early American History (Boston, 1972. 1991), pp.211-217, accessed 27/01/2018

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