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<u>Antonio Rodrigues Robles [''alias … <u>Antonio Rodrigues Robles [''alias'' Adrian Turin]</u>
'''Maurice Woolf discusses the career of Antonio Rodrigues Robles in the context of the use of fictitious names in trade for canary wines between London and the Canaries.'''UNIQda6e4e09708f8dc0-ref-0000130B-QINU
"In July 1658 Antonio Rodrigues Robles was encountering the London Jews' perennial difficulty of claiming cargo that had, in order to avoid confiscation by the Spaniards, been laded under a fictitious name. [FN69] Robles used the alias Adrian Turin and when a vessel, the ''Mary and Joyce'', had been captured by the Spanish he had had 40 pipes of Canary wine on board. The ship had since been retaken by the Commonwealth, and Robles required the usual witnesses to vouch for him as an English subject. He found them in Domingo de la Cerda [FN70] his accountant and manager; John Bellamy, [FN71] his cooper; Augustine Coronel, and Antonio Fernandez Carvajal. Robles, according to de la Cerda, had constantly traded from the Canaries to London and his factors in Teneriffe sent him 300, 400, and (in 1657) 600 pipes of Canary wine annually. Robles, according to Coronel, had been living in London since 1648.
In September 166172 and in July 166373 there are two Port Book entries showing that he exported double bays, serges, cottons, Norwich stuffs, and kersies to the Canaries but not in any large quantities.
He was importing wine from the Canaries in 1660 [FN74] but his name does not appear again in the Port Books until 1671, [FN75] when he received a small quantity of Normandy canvas from Rouen. His trade in Canary wine, however, seems to have improved again in the 'seventies and from 1675 to 1679 he averaged over 85 pipes, worth annually about £2,500. [FN76] Records of Robles' exports are infrequent and<br />
unimportant and one is left with the impression that, in his case, the Port Books give us a totally inadequate indication of the trade he did.
Footnotes:
69 P.R.O. H.C.A. 13/72.<br />
70 De la Cerda appears, trading on his own account, in 1662 P.R.O. E.190 48/7 22 August, 2 September.<br />
71 Bellamy was associated with Carvajal's famous raid on the Customs. See Wolf's 'The First English Jew', Trans.JHSE, Vol. II, pp. 38, 41, and 'Jewry of the Restoration,' Trans.JHSE, Vol. V, pp. 6, 9.<br />
72 P.R.O. E.190 48/4.<br />
73 P.R.O. E.190 49/3.<br />
74 P.R.O. E.190 47/6.<br />
75 P.R.O. E.190 53/4 4 July.<br />
76 P.R.O. E.190 63/1, 66/4, 66/7, 81/2." P.R.O. E.190 63/1, 66/4, 66/7, 81/2." +
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are in this deponents foregoeing depositio … are in this deponents foregoeing deposition declared and therefore<br />
verily beleeveth them to bee the very same wynes laden by the<br />
sayd herrera and seized as aforesayd in the ''Mary and Joyce''<br />
by the two Spanish men of warr aforesayd, this hee deposeth for<br />
that hee tooke notice of the markes of them they being in ladeing<br />
out of the ''Elizabeth'' into lighters, to be carried ashoare, And<br />
further hee cannot depose not certaynely remembring how many<br />
of the sayd forty pipesof wines hee sawe aboard the sayd shipp and<br />
in the lighters who were receiving them./
To the last hee saith his foregoeing deposition is true/
To the Interrogatories on the behalfe of the Lord<br />
Protector:/ [CENTRE HEADING]
To the first Interrogatorie hee saith hee is the Interrogated<br />
Phillip Stafford and was Master of the ''Mary and''<br />
''Joyce'' the voyage in question and hath noe interest in the<br />
wines claymed by Antonio Rodrigues Robles, and saith<br />
hee this rendent is an English man borne at Limpston in devon sheire<br />
and a Subiect of this Commonwealth./
To the 2 Interrogatorie hee saith hee hath knowne the Interrogate Antonio<br />
Rodrigues Robles by sight for those three or fower yeares last<br />
having seene him frequent the Exchange London as a Merchant,<br />
but had noe acquaintance of him till hee this deponent returned<br />
to London from Rotchell in ffrance this voyage in question, And<br />
further to this Interrogatorie hee cannot answere knowing nothing thereof
To the third Interrogatorie hee saith hee cannot<br />
answere knowing nothing thereof./
To the 4th Interrogatorie hee saith as before hee hath deposed that<br />
hee knoweth not whether the bills were made in the Colourable<br />
name of Adrian Turin, but if such a fictitious name were<br />
used, hee beleeveth the reason thereof was for the better<br />
concealing the sayd wines to belong to the sayd Antonio Rodrigues<br />
Robles who lived in England, there being warrs betwixt England<br />
and Spaine, and therefore danger of confiscation of the wines if<br />
they had bin knowne to belong to one living in England, and<br />
therefore beleeveth the sayd Adrian Turin is some person of some<br />
nation in amity with Spaine and thereby privileged<br />
toaine and thereby privileged<br />
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