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]
Obadiah Ingram (b. ?; d. ca. 1635). Merchant Adventurer of London.[15]
Thomas Newman (b. ?; d. ca. 1650). Draper and Merchant Adventurer of London.[16]

Possible

Mathew Tindall (b. ?; d. ?ca. 1676). London draper & trader in cloth
- "Mathew Tindall of London, trader in cloth"[17]

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.[18]
- "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"[19]

Probable

Samuel Augier (b. ?; d. ca. 1667). Merchant Adventurer of Dordrecht.[20]
John Boldero [alt. Baldero] (b. ?; d. ca. 1664). Merchant in Dordrecht[21]
James Fenn (b. ?; d. ca. 1652)[22]

Rotterdam


Probable

William Cotton (b. ?1633; d. ca. 1655). Merchant Adventurer of Rottedam.[23] 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."[24]

Possible

Stephen Puckle (b. ca. 1595; d. ?). Merchant of London and formerly Rotterdam. Deposed in the English High Court of Admiralty in November 1651. 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".[25]
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.[26]


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".[27]
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".[28]


Merchants resident in Hamburg


Probable

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."[29][30]
- "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"[31]
Clement Clarke[32]
John Parker
Francis Townley[33]

Possible

  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. ↑ PROB 11/167/467 Will of Obadiah Ingram, Merchant Adventurer, Draper of London 24 April 1635
  16. ↑ PROB 11/212/24 Will of Thomas Newman, Draper and Merchant Adventurer of London 05 April 1650
  17. ↑ 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
  18. ↑ PROB 11/304/17 Will of Henry Boldero, Merchant Adventurer of Dordrecht, Holland 03 April 1661
  19. ↑ HCA 13/73 f.140r
  20. ↑ PROB 11/323/624 Will of Samuel Augier, Merchant Adventurer of Dordrecht, Holland 22 May 1667
  21. ↑ PROB 11/315/49 Will of John Boldero, Merchant in Dordrecht, Holland 16 September 1664
  22. ↑ PROB 11/221/107 Will of James Fenn, Merchant Adventurer of Rotterdam, Holland 11 March 1652
  23. ↑ PROB 11/250/566 Will of William Cotton, Merchant Adventurer of Rotterdam 31 October 1655
  24. ↑ HCA 13/68 f.235r
  25. ↑ HCA 13/70 f.717v
  26. ↑ HCA 13/65 f.26r
  27. ↑ HCA 13/73 f.141v
  28. ↑ HCA 13/73 f.141v
  29. ↑ XXX, Passages from the diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries: A.D. 1635-A.D. 1699, vol. 30 (?Aberdeen, 1859), p. 60
  30. ↑ 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
  31. ↑ 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].
  32. ↑ A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe (London, 1742), vol.3, p.606
  33. ↑ A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe (London, 1742), vol.3, p.606

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