Henry Crispe

Henry Crispe

Henry Crispe
Person	Henry Crispe
Title
First name	Henry
Middle name(s)
Last name	Crispe
Suffix
Spouse of
Widow of
Occupation	Merchant
Secondary shorebased occupation
Mariner occupation
Associated with ship(s)
Training	Not apprentice
Is apprentice of
Was apprentice of
Had apprentice(s)
Citizen	Unknown
Literacy	Signature
Has opening text	Henry Crispe
Has signoff text	Henry Crispe
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	Saint Antholin Budge Row
Res town	London
Res county
Res province
Res country	England
Birth year	1608
Marriage year
Death year
Probate date	May 30, 1654
First deposition age	45
Primary sources
Act book start page(s)
Personal answer start page(s)
Allegation start page(s)
Interrogatories page(s)
Deposition start page(s)	HCA 13/68 f.114v Annotate
Chancery start page(s)
Letter start page(s)
Miscellaneous start page(s)
Act book date(s)
Personal answer date(s)
Allegation date(s)
Interrogatories date(s)
Deposition date(s)	Oct 10 1653
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	N/A
Silver Ship litigation in 1650s
Role in Silver Ship litigation	None

Biographical synthesis

Henry Crispe (b. ca. 1608; d. ca.1654). Merchant.

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.

Basil Duke Henning (1983) state that Henry Crispe was married to Elizabeth Biddulph, daughter of Anthony Biddulph (b.?; d. ca. 1651), a London haberdasher.

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.

The will of Henry Crispe, haberdasher, of London, was proved on May 30th 1654.

Evidence from High Court of Admiralty

October 1653

Forty-five year old Henry Crispe deposed on October 10th 1653 in the High Court of Admiralty. He was examined in the cause of "The keepers of the Liberty of England by authority of Parliament against a shipp named the Jonas (whereof Hanse Hogkins was master) and her tackle apparrell and furniture and the goods wares and merchandizes aboard the same seized as belonging to the ffrench King or States of the United Provinces by certayne shipps in the imediate service of the Commonwealth".

Henry Crispe's deposition followed that of John Glover, a London merchant, who had particular expertise in the export of spices from Holland to England".

Henry Crispe contrasted the behaviour of Amsterdam and Hamburg merchants. He stated that it was usual for "marchants of Amsterdam and other ports in the jurisdiction of the States of the United Provinces to send such quantities as is arlate and greater of pepper into ffrance Spaine and the Streights". But, in contrast, "the marchants of Hamburgh doe not usually send any great quantities of pepper to any of the aforementioned places".

Henry Crispe's 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.

Comment on sources

1649

SP 82/7/f131 Henry Crispe to Walter Frost, Secretary to Council of State 1649 Aug 3