The project is suitable for absolute beginners as well as experienced historians, and makes a great way to learn new research skills and to revive long neglected interests.  If you are planning to start a Masters degree this autumn, it is a good way to start using and linking primary and secondary sources of all sorts. No transcription is involved.

Below are some of the individuals you will encounter in the pages of thje depositions of the High Court of Admiralty of England in the years 1657 and 1658 (HCA 13/72).  If you recognise a name, can think of a source or have a research suggestion, why don’t you sign up to add to our Annotation project wiki now?

B

Giles Baily (“of the parish of Saint Mary Magdalen Bermondsea Mariner, aged 30 yeeres”: master’s mate in the Golden ffortune; deponent in HCA 13/72)
Mr Baldero
Harry Baldero
Henry Baldero
James Baldwin (“of the parish of Saint Buttolph Bishopsgate London Vintener, aged 56 yeeres”; deponent in HCA 13/72))
Abraham Barnabye (deponent in HCA 13/72)
Thomas Barnes (“of Ratcliff Mariner aged twenty six yeares”; deponent in HCA 13/72)
John Barnett (“of Ratcliff in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner Steward of the shipp Elizabeth and Mary aged sixtie yeares”; deponent in HCA 13/72)
Joshua Bartlett (Master and Commander of the Recovery when at Barbados)
Thomas Barrett (on the Gilbert)
Thomas Barton (“of Passage nigh Waterford in Ireland Merchant, aged about 54 yeares”; deponent in HCA 13/72)
Basse
Antonio Basso (“Merchant, a native of Genoa aged 27 yeeres or thereabouts, now living in London”; deponent in HCA 13/72)
Adrian Bastianson (“of Schernmer Horne neere Amsterdam Mariner one of the company of the said shipp Morning starr, aged 25 yeares”, deponent in HCA 13/72)
Leonard Bates (“of the parish of Saint Michael Cornehill London Scrivener, aged 34 yeares”; shop in Cornehill; deponent in HCA 13/72)
William Becks (Cook(e) on the Gilbert)
Captaine Beech (“by the order of the interrate Jones one of the said pipes of wine was disposed of unto one Captaine Beech at the Barbadoes and another by his order was putt into a Cellar there”)
William Beecham (“William Beecham was the time arlate commonly accounted owner of the lighter and Wharfinger of the Wharfe arlate”)
Captaine Bell (“hee hath heard that the arlate Captaines Ny, Tatam, Ell, Bell and Wills were all bound with their severall shipps arlate upon a voyage from Lisbne to Brazeele”)
Bellamy
Marke Bennett (“of Greenwich in the County of Kent Mariner, aged about 25 yeares”, mariner on the Gilbert; “shippt aboard the Gilbert arlate as a ffore=Mast man at the Barbadoes for her homeward voyage”; deponent in HCA 13/72)
John Benning (“Examined upon certaine Interrogatories ministred on the behalfe of the said John Benning Richard Jennings and others”)
Henry Berry (“of Redriff in the County of Surrey Shipwright, aged 28 yeeres”: deponent in HCA 13/72)
John Berry (“a Pylott, to conduct and carry the sayd shipp from king roade to hung roade”)
Philipp Bequin (“the ffactor and Agent of the said Anthonio Mara de Conte”)
Richard Beswick (“of hull mariner, aged 27 yeares”, master of the Anna and Mary, part-owner with Edward Ascough, Robert Kilmer and Edward Nicolas of the Anna and Mary; deponent in HCA 13/72)
Jonathan Bigland (“of Redriff Shipwright, aged 28 yeares”; deponent in HCA 13/72)
Edward Blacket (“the said goods were bought and laden by this Deponent, by the Order of the said Mr Blancart, and Mr Stock And that hee had a letter of Credit from Mr Stock, drawn upon one Mr Edward Blacket Merchant, living at Newcastle of whome this Deponent receaved the Summe of 200: li which money paid for the foresaid goods”)
Laurance Blancart (“of London Merchant”)
George Blowe (mariner on the Recovery)
Captaine Joseph Blowe (“And hee further saith that while hee continued in the Brazeele severall other English shipps manned alsoe with English videlicet the Sampson Captaine John Lynis Commander, and the shipp Sippo Captaine Thomas Evens Commander and the shipp the Three brothers John Wilkey Commander and the shipp To[XXX GUTTER] Captaine Joseph Blowe Comander and the shipp Thomas and Lucia Captaine Andrew Rands Commander and severall other English shipps came to Brazeele from Lisbone”)
John Bond (gunner on the Recovery)
David Bonnell (“david Younge and Company against david Bonnell”)
Andrew Bowman (deponent in HCA 13/72)
Charles Bradick (Master of the Maidstone frigot aged 53 yeeres; deponent in HCA 13/72)
Charles Bradicke
Daniel Bradley (master of the Christopher of Portsmouth)
Duke of Brandenburgh (“while the said shipp Lay at Quinsborowe all or most of the said Company did Desert and leave her, and went into the Duke of Brandenburgh his Service, and never came againe into the Service of the said ship, And that a short time after their Running away into the said Dukes Service, they or some other seamen, or Souldiers of the Generall of the said Duke of Brandenburghes ships, came aboard the said ship, and tooke and carryed away out of her, one Anchor and Cable”)
John Brands (master of the shipp the Armes of the Dutchesse of Courland)
John Bray (“a certaine ship called the Malin (whereof Olave Peterson is Master) now Ryding in the River of Thames and doth Properly belong, and Appertaine unto him the said Peter Split, Adam Jennings Thomas Lowe Mannock Johnson, and John Bray, who were and are the true and Lawfull Proprietors thereof and that the said Peter Split, did and doth dwell in EastSmithfeild and the said Thomas Lowe did and doth live and Dwell in Towerstreete London. the said Mannk Johnson did and doth Live and Dwell in Limestreete London, John Bray did and Doth live and Dwell in Saint Catherins, neere unto the Tower of London, and Adam Jennings, did and doth live, and dwell sometimes in Saint Catherines aforesaid”)
Mr. Broadrick (a part-owner of the Gilbert)
Edward Brigges (signature of deponent in HCA 13/72)
Edward Briggs (“of Shoreham in the County of Sussex Mariner, aged 40 yeeres or thereabouts Master of the said Barke the Willing Minde“; Master of the Willing Minde in July 1652 on voyage to Ireland)
Morrice Briggs (“of the parish of Saint Cathrines neere the Tower of London Waterman, aged 55″; deponent in HCA 13/72)
John Broughton (“of London Merchant”; “Broughton was owner of five sixteenth parts (of the King David), and the said Abbot of six 16th parts of the said ship and of her tackle and furniture”)
Thomas Browning (“of Wapping Mariner, aged 35 yeares”; deponent in HCA 13/72)
John Bryson (“of the parish of Saint Katherines Coleman in ffanchurch streete London Merchant aged 24 yeeres”; deponent in HCA 13/72)
James Buckland (mariner on the XXXX from Barbary to Barbados, who deserted ship at Barbados)
Edward Buckley (“of the parish of Saint Olave in Southwarke Mariner aged twenty nyne yeares”; deponent in HCA 13/72)
Mr. Budd (a proctor in the High Court of Admiralty)
Thomas Burton (“of Passage nigh Waterford in Ireland Merchant, aged about 54 yeares”; deponent in HCA 13/72)
John Bushell (“of the parish of Saint Andrew Undershaft London Merchant aged 39. yeares “; “hee went only one voyage from Lisbone to Brazeele which voyage hee began about the moneth of June one thousand six hundred forty eight and saith that in and by his sayd Charter party (which was made in presence and with the consent of Jeremy Younge and John Bushell two of his Owners and in the presence and with the consent of Thomas Linch the deponents Purser of who was by order of the Owners to bee made acquainted therewith and to be present with this deponent when hee this deponent did agree with his freighters upon the conditions therein to bee expressed and when hee this deponent signed the same Charterparty)”; deponent in HCA 13/73)

About MarineLives

The MarineLives project works on the manuscript records of the High Court of Admiralty of England.  By working collaboratively to transcribe, annotate and link these documents, the project seeks to make them available to a wide audience

MarineLives is run on a not-for-profit basis and is co-directed by Colin Greenstreet and Jill Wilcox,  with Colin acting as chief editor and Jill organising operations and training.

The project is run by a leadership team consisting of Colin, Jill and a number of team facilitators – Philip Hnakovitch (Penn State), William Tullet (Kings College, London), and Alex Jackson (graduate of Sheffield University).  It benefits from the advice of a number of academics, including Dr Charlene Eska (Virginia Tech) and Dr Richard Blakemore (Exeter).  Giovanni Colavizza (University Ca’ Foscari of Venice) designed and implemented the MarineLives transcription platform, which makes use of SCRIPTO, an open source software programme developed by George Mason University, Virginia.

The project has its genesis in a hackathon at the National Archives in early 2012, organised by Jo Pugh, and attended by Colin Greenstreet.

Most importantly the MarineLives project depends on the enthusiasm, skills and creativity of its volunteers.  Why don’t you sign up to join us now? 

Written in the formal legal prose of a London solicitor, it is a direct appeal to the justices of the Admiralty Court for the immediate payment of mariners wages. Henry Lockier and George Spurgeon, the womens’ husbands,  had not yet returned from Virginia, whence they shipped in September 1649 from London, and their wives, “having each of them a great Charge of Children to  bring up and maintaine,” were at risk of utter ruin.

At first reading the claims of the two women seem remarkable.

A captain who took on one hundred and sixty passengers in addition to thirty-five crewmen, yet who carried victuals for only six weeks, rather than the usual three months. Men and women consequently suffering famine on board ship, and reduced to paying ten shillings to purchase a single ship’s rat to eat.

Twenty-three men and women abandoned on an island by an inhumane and barbarous Captain, surviving on rain water and tree leaves, till eventually they were reduced to drawing lots as to who should be shot the next day “to serve food for the rest.” ²

The intervention of God causing the “sudden and unexpected fall of a great tree that night which killed two men and a woman of their Company: which the rest of the Company left alive were forced to eate and live upon untill such time as they were by Gods providence releived by the very heathen and by them in Canoes transported over the river to the other side and soe travelled to Virginia by land.” ³

Fanciful tales, or a dramatic statement of facts? 

Unusually for a High Court of Admiralty case, there is an independent account from outside the court, of the voyage of the Virginia Merchant.  The account was written by Colonel Henry Norwood (1615-1689), a passenger on board the same ship, and published shortly after the voyage as ‘A voyage to Virginia.’ ⁴

Norwood’s account corroborates the broad claims of the petition of Priscilla Lockier and Sara Spurgeon.

Badly damaged by storms, it is clear that famine and death descended upon the ship.  Rations were reduced to half a biscuit per man and woman per day and “the famine grew sharp upon us.” ⁵

Norwood even out trumps the petitioners story of the ten shilling rats:

“Women and children made dismal cries and grievous complaints. The infinite number of rats that all the voyage had been our plague, we now were glad to make our prey to feed on; and as they were insnared and taken, a well grown rat was sold for sixteen shillings as a market rate. Nay, before the voyage did end (as I was credibly inform’d) a woman great with child offered twenty shillings for a rat, which the proprietor refusing, the woman died.” ⁶

Norwood describes a weak Captain, who has become a pawn to the weather and who has lost full control of his crew and despairing passengers. After a meagre Christmas feast, the captain extended Norwood the favour of going in search of water at the bottoms of the empty casks in the hold. Sitting astride on a butt of Malaga in the hold, they took to drinking of the strong waters. The effect on Norwood was to refresh him, yet the captain fell, according to Norwood, into melancholy:

“The poor captain fell to contemplate (as it better became him) our sad condition; and being troubled in mind for having brought so many wretched souls into misery, by a false confidence he gave them of his having a good ship, which he now thought would prove their ruin; and being conscious, that their loss would lie all at his door, it was no easy matter to appease his troubled thoughts. He made me a particular compliment for having engaged me and my friends in the same bottom, and upon that burst into tears. I comforted him the best I could, and told him, We must all submit to the hand of God, and rely on his goodness, hoping, that the same providence which had hitherto so miraculously preserved us, would still be continued in our favour till we were in safety. We retired obscurely to our friends, who had been wondering at our absence.” ⁷

What of the cannibalism?

Norwood was one the men and women left on an island off the Virginian coast by the Virginia Merchant.

He estimates their number to have been nineteen, rather than the twenty-three of the petition, and describes a meagre diet of an occasional water-fowl, oysters clawed from the shore, supplemented with some sort of weed “some four inches long, as thick as houseleek, and the only green (except pines) that the island afforded. It was very insipid on the palate; but being boiled with a little pepper (of which one had brought a pound on shore) and helped with five or six oysters, it became a regale for every one in turn.” ⁸

Norwood confirms the eating of human flesh by the survivors, but without the drama of Lockier and Spurgeon’s description of lots being drawn to shoot a colleague for flesh to eat. Indeed, Norwood claims the idea to have been his own firm recommendation to the group.  With an etiquette which may intrigue historians of gender, the women and the men were each to eat their own.

“Of the three weak women before-mentioned, one had the envied happiness to die about this time; and it was my advice to the survivors, who were following her apace, to endeavour their own preservation by converting, her dead carcase into food, as they did to good effect. The same counsel was embrac’d by those of our sex: the living fed upon the dead; four of our company having the happiness to end their miserable lives on Sunday night the _ day of January. Their chief distemper, ’tis true, was hunger; but it pleased God to hasten their exit by an immoderate access of cold, caused by a most terrible storm of hail and snow at north-west, on the Sunday aforesaid, which did not only dispatch those four to their long homes, but did sorely threaten all that remained alive, to perish by the same fate.“ ⁹

Click here to go to an annotated copy of the petition of Priscilla Lockier and Sara Spurgeon, together with Colonel Henry Norwood’s account of the voyage of the Virginia Merchant and of cannibalism.  Follow the instructions to register and to add your own annotations.

The petition of Prescilla Lockier and Sara Spurgeon, 28th September 1650 ¹⁰

To the right worshipfull the Judges of the high Court of the Admiraltie:./

The humple petition of Priscilla Lockier and Sara Spurgion wifes of Hugh Lockier and George Spurgeon two of the Marriners of the Shipp the Virginia Merchant (whereof John Lockier was Captaine or Comander./

Sheweth
That the petitioners husbands were hired by the said Captaine Lockier at severall monethly wages to serve in the said shipp for a voyage to be made from this port of London to Virginia and from thense hither backe againe, which service they performed from the 6th of September 1649 untill March last being 6 monethes lacking 4 dayes, but by reason the sayd Shipp was become unserviceable at Virginia your petitioners husbands could not come home in her but are left behind to shift for themselves the said Captaine Lockier and some others coming home as passengers in another Shippe And your petitioners seeing their husbands come not home as they expected demanded their wages of the Captaine for the time they served him, but he denyed to pay the same, for which your petitioners have sued the said Captaine Lockier in the Court And whereas all Masters of Shipps that goe to Virginia use to carry 3 monethes ˹victualls˺ at the least out with them; The sayd Captaine Lockier had not layd in above 6 weekes victualls in his said shipp when she sett saile from Gravesend outward bound; which Mr George Putt cheife Mate and pilot of the said Shippe taking notice of, asked the said Captaine why he had soe slenderly victualled the shipp telling him, it would not serve halfe way; he replyed that he would take in more victualls at the Downes which he did not at all performe notwithstanding there were 35 seaman and above 130 passengers neere upon 200 persons in all in the said Shippe, whereof 62 passengers and 4 Seamen by reason of the want of provisions were starved to death before the shipp came to Virginia.

That within a fortnight next after the said Ship set saile from Gravesend both Seamen and passingers were put to their allowance videlicet the Seamen to two, and the passingers each man to one biskett a day, afterwards to halfe a biskett a day and at length to halfe a pint of parched pease a day betweene 2 men, they having neither beere nor water in the shippe to drincke but what they were Constrayned to drinke of strongwaters of their owne which they Carried with them for adventures: and the famine came soe violently upon them that divers in the said Shippe would willingly have given 10: s for one of the Shipps ratts (which some of the Seamen catched) to have eaten, their being but one small fish of the value of 6: d allowed for a meale to 15 or 20 men:/

That the said Captaine Lockier sett 23 persons ashore upon an unknowne Island to gett freshwater promising to fetch them on board againe: but after they were soe sett on shoare the sayd Captaine Lockier presently carried the Shippe away to Virginia and most in humanely and barbarously left all the said 23 persons in that unknowne place to be starved there noe manner of food to be found soe that they were forced to live a whole 3 weekes with water and the leaves of trees: And at the length the rage and violence of their famine soe much increasing and being not able to eate those leaves and longer they cast lotts which of them should be shott the next day to serve for food for the rest; which was miraculously prevented by the suddaine and unexpected fall of a great tree that night which killed 2 men and a woman of their Company: which the rest of the Company left alive were forced to eate and live upon untill such time as they were by Gods providence XXXXXXXX releived by the very heathen and by them in Canoes transported over the river to the other side and soe travelled to Virginia by land where divers of them dyed as soone as they came thense, and some dyed on that Island by famine./

That the petitioners have spent all they have even their very {XXXX} from under them in prosecution of this suite to gett their wages and are like to be utterly ruined and undone they having each of them a great Charge of Children to bring up and maintaine all which premisses your petitioners are able to prove by the oathes of sufficient witnesses

Your petitioners therefore most humbly pray that your worships would be pleased to take their sad conditions into their your pious and serious Considerations, and to order the sayd Captaine Lockier to pay your petitioners their whole wages due to their husbands forthwith or els to give your petitioners leave to give in an allegation in Court to the effect of the premisses above written: the same being altogether omitted in the allegation given in on your petitioners behalfe; and to produce and examine witnesses thereupon, that soe the iustice of your petitioners Cause and the great wrong they have received may appeare;

And your petitioners as in humble duty
bound shall ever pray etcetera

The marke of P L Prescillia Lockier
The marke of S Sara Sparges./

Footnotes

(1) TNA, HCA 15/5 f.99

(2) TNA, HCA 15/5 f.99

(3) TNA, HCA 15/5 f.99

(4) Colonel Norwood, A Voyage to Virginia (1649), in Tracts and Other Paper Relating Principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America From the Discovery of the Country to the Year 1776, vol. 3 (Gloucester, MA, 1963)

(5) Colonel Norwood, A Voyage to Virginia (1649), in Tracts and Other Paper Relating Principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America From the Discovery of the Country to the Year 1776, vol. 3 (Gloucester, MA, 1963), p. 17)

(6) Colonel Norwood, A Voyage to Virginia (1649), in Tracts and Other Paper Relating Principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America From the Discovery of the Country to the Year 1776, vol. 3 (Gloucester, MA, 1963), p. 17)

(7) Colonel Norwood, A Voyage to Virginia (1649), in Tracts and Other Paper Relating Principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America From the Discovery of the Country to the Year 1776, vol. 3 (Gloucester, MA, 1963), p. 18)

(8) Colonel Norwood, A Voyage to Virginia (1649), in Tracts and Other Paper Relating Principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America From the Discovery of the Country to the Year 1776, vol. 3 (Gloucester, MA, 1963), pp. 23-24)

(9) Colonel Norwood, A Voyage to Virginia (1649), in Tracts and Other Paper Relating Principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America From the Discovery of the Country to the Year 1776, vol. 3 (Gloucester, MA, 1963), pp. 24-25)

(10) TNA, HCA 15/5 f.99

The Court’s records provide the testimony of common seamen, shipwrights, and brewers’ clerks, as well as the words of merchants and ship captains.  They document litigation by seamens’ widows to recover their deceased husband’s wages, and the commercial battles of women continuing their husband’s marine supply businesses, long after their husband’s deaths.

The records

Take a look at some of the witness statements by clicking on the links below.

You can search the records for topics of interest using the search box in the top right hand corner of every Annotate HCA 13/72 wiki page.

Each wiki page provides a transcription, together with the opportunity to add notes on people, places, ships, materials and miscellaneous, and to suggest relevant primary and secondary sources.

A high definition digital image of the original manuscript page can be compared with the latest version of the transcription by accessing our transcription software from the wiki page.

If you like what you see, and wish to join us in the collective annotation of these records, please contact us, and we will provide you with a username and password.

These will enable you to add your own annotations and to share research tips with others.

Extract: Alphabetical index of deponents in the High Court of Admiralty, 1656-58

A

Haniball Allen of London Merchant aged thirty two yeares
Manoel Alverez of the New Market neere Covent Garden Steward of the Portugal Ambassadour, aged 36 yeares

B

John Barnett of Ratcliff in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner Steward of the shipp Elizabeth and Mary aged sixtie yeares
Thomas Barnes of Ratcliff Mariner aged twenty six yeares
Adrian Bastianson of Schernmer Horne neere Amsterdam Mariner one of the company of the said shipp Morning Starr aged 25 yeares
Leonard Bates of the parish of Saint Michael Cornehill London Scrivener, aged 34 yeares
Marke Bennett of Greenwich in the County of Kent Mariner, aged about 25 yeares
Henry Berry of Redriff in the County of Surrey Shipwright, aged 28 yeeres
Richard Beswick of Hull mariner, aged 27 yeares
Jonathan Bigland of Redriff Shipwright, aged 28 yeares
Charles Bradick Master of the Maidstone frigot aged 53 yeeres
Thomas Browning of Wapping Mariner, aged 35 yeares
John Bryson of the parish of Saint Katherines Coleman in ffanchurch streete London Merchant aged 24 yeeres
Edward Buckley of the parish of Saint Olave in Southwarke Mariner aged twenty nyne yeares
John Bushell of the parish of Saint Andrew Undershaft London Merchant aged 39. yeares

C

Henry Carter servant and Apprentice to Richard Brian of the parish of Saint Mary at hill London Wine Cooper aged 20 yeares
Samuell Church of Writtle in Essex Mariner aged twenty sixe yeares
ffrederick Claeson of Amsterdam mariner, boatswaine of the said shipp the Morning starr aged 30 yeeres
Abraham Clarke of Debtford in Kent shipwright Carpenter of the shipp Unitie the voyage in question aged twenty five yeare
Thomas Clarke of Redriff in the County of Surrie Mariner, aged 42 yeeres
John Cobb of Rederiffe in the County of Surry Mate in the shipp the Gilbert
Thomas Constant of the parish of Saint Nicholas in the Citty of Bristoll Mariner, aged about 25 yeares
John Cooke of the parish of White Chappell London Merchant, aged 36 yeeres
Stephen Cranbrooke of Deale in the County of Kent Mariner aged 36 yeares

D

John Daniel of the citie of London Notary publique aged fourtie yeeres
Anthony Deane of Greenwich Shipwright aged 25 yeeres
Israel Dennis of Bristol Mariner late masters mate of the shipp the Recovery of Bristoll, aged 33 yeeres
Bertrand diX Dibarbore of London Merchant aged nine and twenty yeares
Bertrand dibarbore of London Merchant aged 29 yeeres
Bertrand Dibarbone of London Merchant aged nine and twenty yeares
Francis Dickinson of Horsedowne in the parish of Saint Olaves Southwarke Mariner aged 25 yeares

E

Daniel Edwards of London Merchant, aged 42 yeeres

F

John ffenner of the parish of White Chappell Turner aged 30 yeeres
Nicholas de Ferrari of London Merchant aged 56. yeares
Richard fford of London Marchant aged 43 yeeres

G

George Gosyde of Amsterdam Mariner, aged 30 yeares
Thomas Gowen of Disert in Scotland Mariner aged thirty yeares
Thomas Grant of London Mariner aged fifty yeares
Thomas Gray of Wapping Boat=swaine of the shipp the Golden ffleece, being produced by Captaine Seaman Captaine of the said Golden ffleece,

H

Haie Haies of Marquera in ffreezland Mariner, Schipper of the shipp the Sampson of London, aged 26 yeares
Thomas Hanson of the same Mariner, Stiersman of the same vessell aged 24 yeares or thereabouts
John Harris of Rie in the County of Sussex Mariner, aged 60 yeeres
John Harris of Wapping in the County of Middlesex mariner late Boatswaine of the Christopher the voyage in question aged thirty one yeares
William Harris servant of Mr Monger Water Bayliff of the citie of London, aged 48 yeeres
Robert Hartley of Bright Hamson in the County of Sussex Mariner, aged 31 yeares
Samuell Haughton of the parish of Allhallowes Lombarde streete London Scriverner. aged twenty one yeares
Paul Heyn of Christiansand in Norway Mariner Master of the shipp called the Little Lyon now of London, aged 43 yeares
Thomas Hicks of London ffishmonger, aged 39 yeeres
John Humphreys of Bright Hampson in the County of Sussex Mariner, aged 27 yeares
John Hunt of Colchester, Mariner, a foremast man of the Ketch the Bachelor, aged 21: yeeres
Richard Hussy of Lymehouse in the parish of Stepney Mariner late Master of the Saint Lucar Marchant aged sixty yeares
Robert Hyde of Rederith in the County of Surry Marriner aged 23 yeeres

I

Esiah Isbell now of Wapping but late of Kerrey in Ireland Mariner aged 30 yeares
Frederick Ixem of London Notary publique

J

John Johnson of Madenblick in holland Mariner aged 24 yeares
Thomas Johnson of Rotterdam Mariner, aged 40 yeeres
Robert Jones of the parish of Saint Mary Maldalen in Surry Marriner, Master of the ship Providence aged 40 yeeres

K

Richard Keate of the parish of Saint Mary Overy in Southwarke Mariner aged twenty one yeares
Henry Kyne of Wapping in the parishe of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner aged nynteene yeares

L

William Lee of London Merchant aged 28 yeeres
Luke Lilly now of the parish of Saint Austin by Pauls London gentleman late Passenger in the shipp the Gilbert from the Barbados (whereof the sayd William Croford was Master)
Abraham da Lima of London Merchant servant of the producent Isaac da Andrada Andrada, aged 24 yeeres
Nicholas Lorson of Timsborough in Norway Marchant aged 31 yeeres

M

Edward Makkettuer of Wapping in the parish of Stepney Lighterman aged fifty three yeares
Henry Man of Enchusen in holland Mariner Carpenter mate of the Negro the voyage in question aged thirty one yeares
Baldwin Mathewes of Middleborowe Merchant aged 37 yeares
John Maxfeild of the parish of Saint Edmunds the Kinge and Martyr in Lombard Streete London Scrivener aged twenty seaven yeares
Richard Megin of Ratcliff in the parish of Stepney Mariner aged thirty two yeares
Antonio Martinis da Mesa of Sevile Merchant aged thirtie two
Thomas Middleton of Poplar in the parish of Stepney and county of Middlesex Esquire aged 48 yeeres
John Moore of the parish of Saint Mary Magdalen Bermondsea Mariner, aged 32 yeares
Thomas Morgan of Rederiff in the County of Surrey Mariner Boatswaine of the sayd Shipp the Negro the voyage in question aged thirty fower yeares
Richard Morris late of the Barbadoes and now of London Chirurgion aged thirty eight
Henry Mudde of Wapping in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner Masters Mate of the Welcombe aged twenty two yeares
Captaine Christofer Myngs commander of the Marston Moore frigot in the immediate service of this Commonwealth, aged 32 yeeres

N

Thomas Norton of London Packer, aged 37 yeares
James Nuthall of the precinct of Saint Katherine neere the Tower of London gentleman aged thirty two yeares

O

John Orton of Wapping Wall, Cooke, aged fourtie two yeares

P

Mathew Paine of Wapping in the County of Middlesex Mariner, late master of the shipp the Martin ffrigot of Waterford, aged 29 yeeres
Francis Pardini of London Merchant aged 36. yeares
John Peterson of Amsterdám Marriner Stiersman of the shipp the Morning Starr, aged 27 yeeres
John Peterson of the citie of Bristoll Merchant aged 43 yeares
Edward Phillips of Debtford Sailer, one of the Company of the Maidstone frigot in the immediate service of this Commonwealth, aged 24 yeeres
Hugh Powell of Dukes Place London Merchant aged 49 yeares
George Prince of London Merchant Mariner, aged 30 yeeres
Peter Proby
John Pryenaer of Ostend Mariner aged 44 yeares
Charles Pullen of East Cowes in the Ile of Wight Marriner, aged 34 yeeres

Q

R

Robert Richbell of Southampton Merchant aged fifty yeeres
William Ricks of Shadwell in the parish of Stepney aged about 40ty yeeres
Francis Robinson of the parish of Saint Buttolph without Bishopsgate London Merchant, aged 36 yeares
Richard Roch of the parish of Saint Trinitie in the Minories London citizen and Merchant tailor of London, aged 60 yeeres
Richard Rudstone of Colchester in the County of Essex Mariner Master of the ship Bachelor aged 30 yeeres
Edward Ryder of Shadwell in the parish if Stepney and County of Middlesex Long Cutler aged thirty one yeares

S

Nicholas Saunders of Truroe in Cornewall Merchant, aged 28 yeeres
Rowland Serchfeild of London Merchant
Peter Silvester of London Merchant, aged 27 yeeres
Thomas Sinnet of the parish of Saint Buttolphs Algate Mariner, aged 40 yeares
Peter Smith of BrightHampton in the County of Sussex Sailor, aged 23 yeeres
George Steward now of Shadwell but late of Invernesse in Scotland Mariner and Carpenter of the Elizabeth and Mary
Cuthbert Stone of Powderam neere Exeter in the County of devon Mariner Gunner of the Elizabeth and Mary aged thirty eight yeares

T

Thomas Thompson of Wapping Mariner, aged 35 yeeres
Albert Tompson of Delft haven mariner, aged 23 yeeres

U

V

William Venus of the parish of Saint Mary Magdalen Bermondsea Shipwright, aged 42 yeeres
Samuel Vernon of the same citite Merchant aged 44 yeeres

W

George Webber of London Merchant, áged 29 yeeres
John Weekes of the same citie servant of Laurence Martel of the citie afore said Merchant aged twenty yeeres
George Whillers of Lisbone Merchant, aged about 28 yeeres
George Whitlers of Lisbone Merchant aged 28 yeeres
Richard Wilde of London merchant, aged 19 yeeres
George Wilkinson of Ipswich in Suffolk Marriner late fforemast man of the said ship King David aged 18 yeeres
Claes Williams of Amsterdam master of the said shipp Morningstarr, aged 38 yeares
Claes Williams of Amsterdám mariner, aged 38 yeeres
John Wills of Ratcliff in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner Captaine of the Successe of London aged fifty two yeares
Henry Wilson of Greenwich labourer, aged 40 yeeres
Captaine Isaac Woodgreene of Wapping Mariner aged 40 yeares
Rogert Worthley of XXell in Norfolke Mariner Gunners mate of the Negro the voyage in question aged forty five yeares

X

Y

Z

Our goal is collaboratively to annotate Admiralty Court records from the years 1657 and 1658 (HCA 13/72).

    See ‘Annotating Marine Lives‘, The Shipping News, May 1st 2013.

Early volunteer responders to our announcement include Mathew Barrett, a Sheffield lawyer with an undergraduate degree in history (Hertford College, Oxford, 2010), and David Pashley, one of our existing transcribers, who is a retired NHS administrator and Cambridge classicist.  They are now helping organise the launch of the annotation project, and look forward to hearing from further potential volunteers. 

Working on the MarineLives annotation project this summer would be a great way for you to hone your research techniques, whether for a term paper or a dissertation for your BA or MA degree.  Or simply for the fun of learning and developing new skills.

If you would like to learn more, please contact us using our contact form.  If you know someone who might be interested, please forward this blog link.

Today’s Shipping News article provides a few examples of different types of annotation – but your imagination and sleuthing within the data will no doubt yield many other ways to comment on, and link, the Admiralty Court records.

Footnotes

Linking records: The Constant Ruth

Short profiles

- People: Beniamine Morewood, merchant

- Places: Smyrna

- Materials: Glossary – Coales to Coniak wines

Longer profile: Sir George Smith, merchant

Suggested primary sources: Sir George Smith, merchant

Suggested secondary sources: Admiralty Court of England

New Proof of Concept: Annotation

We are also announcing a new proof of concept to be run this summer, leading, we hope, to a successful academic/public funding application by the end of this year. 

The goal of this proof of concept is to explore the collaborative annotation of Admiralty Court records, using simple wiki technology. 

Over the last eight months we have tested the use of a project wiki to support our volunteer transcribers and to share information between transcribers.  We wish now to apply the same technology and approach to collaborative annotation.

We will use what we learn this summer to shape the user requirements and technology specification for the next stage of the MarineLives annotation project.

We are running the trial using roughly 300 records from a second volume of Admiralty Court records (HCA 13/72, covering 1657-1658).  We have already transcribed and edited these records, and are now loading them onto the trial wiki.

Our trial is intended to be exactly that – a chance to experiment – we want to see the type of primary and secondary sources our volunteers use to annotate these records, and to see how they approach the material and collaborate together to produce new knowledge.

We will provide electronic access to further transcriptions of HCA documents, including the Act Books for the late 1650s, and samples of instance papers from the same period.  But is up to our volunteers to explore the records and see what they can discover, link, and think worth annotating.

Contact us

Please contact us if you would like to discuss working with us on this proof of concept this July and August.

We are interested in talking to individual volunteers (academics, teachers, students at universities and schools, family historians, and pure enthusiasts)

And to academic institutions which may wish to participate in our planned academic/public funding application.

Ideally, we would collaborate with two institutions, or two academic groups at one institution, with our partners contributing technical knowledge in terms of digital platforms and annotation software as well as Early Modern content expertise.

We would be delighted to work with one or two post-doctoral academics with a digital and/or Early Modern background and would aim through our funding application to provide some funding for a year’s participation in the project on a part-time basis.

Participating in the MarineLives annotation project should provide academic and other publication opportunities, both around content and methodology, and is one specific aim for the project.

The wiki

If you would like to participate in our proof of concept this summer tell us, and we will issue you with a username and password.

Tools for the job

Your user name and password will also give you access to our companion wiki, MarineLives-Tools.

Resources include:

- A guide to the High Court of Admiralty

- Hearth tax and inventory look up tables

- Glossaries covering Early Modern geography, trade goods, and marine terms.

MarineLives Project Background

The MarineLives project is co-directed by Colin Greenstreet and Jill Wilcox. Colin is a former pharmaceutical executive and entrepreneur, and Jill is an experienced teacher and head of department. They divide up roles fairly informally, with Colin acting as chief editor and Jill organising operations and training.

The project has its genesis in a hackathon at the National Archives in early 2012, organised by Jo Pugh, and attended by Colin Greenstreet.

The project is run by a leadership team consisting of Colin, Jill and a number of team facilitators – Philip Hnakovitch (Penn State), William Tullet (Kings College, London), and Alex Jackson (graduate of Sheffield University).  It benefits from the advice of a number of academics, including Dr Charlene Eska (Virginia Tech) and Dr Richard Blakemore (Exeter).  Giovanni Colavizza (University Ca’ Foscari of Venice) designed and implemented the MarineLives transcription platform, which makes use of SCRIPTO, an open source software programme developed by George Mason University, Virginia.

Most importantly the MarineLives project depends on the enthusiasm, skills and creativity of its volunteers.

Associates, facilitators and advisors who have contributed to the now completed transcription of HCA 13/71 and more generally to the project are:

Deborah Ashby (graduate, Keele)

Rachel Bates (masters graduate, Portsmouth)

Katie Broke (year 13 student, Westminster School)

Dr Catherine Buchanan (teacher, Westminster School)

Elio Calcagno (Nottingham)

Giovanni Colavizza (University Ca’ Foscari of Venice)

Vikki Corker (National Archives, Kew)

Dr Stuart Dunn (King’s College, London)

Dr Charlene Eska (Virginia Tech)

Dr Janet Few (community historian)

Jamie LeAnne Hager Goodall (Ohio State)

Guy Grannum (National Archives, Kew)

Colin Greenstreet (founder of MarineLives)

Karen Gunnell (archivist)

Dr Liam Haydon (Manchester)

Philip Hnatkovich (Penn State)

Alex Jackson (masters graduate, University of Sheffield; museum educationalist)

William Kellett (GAP year student, prior to study at Cambridge)

Gordon O’Sullivan (masters graduate, Trinity College, Dublin; professional project manager)

David Pashley (retired NHS administrator and classicist)

Dr Cathryn Pearce (maritime historian)

Jo Pugh (National Archives, Kew)

Patrizia Rebulla (masters graduate, Trinity College, Dublin; music business consultant)

Daniel Richards (year 13 student, London Oratory)

Margaret Schotte (Princeton)

Laura Seymour (Birkbeck)

Ida Sjoberg (year 13 student, Westminster School)

Alexis Harasemovitch Truax (University of Texas, Austin)

William Tullett (King’s College, London)

Jill Wilcox (teacher and head of department)

The MarineLives project team is delighted that its paper has been accepted by the conference organisers, and is now looking for two volunteer graduate research associates to assist it over the next few months in completing the paper.  All intellectual contributions to the paper will be recognised in the paper’s authorship.

The paper is titled: “Each according to his office”: Risk, rank, and labour in English whaling enterprise at Spitsbergen, 1656-7.  Its proposers and current principal authors are Philip Hnatkovich (Ph.D candidate, Pennsylvania State University) and Colin Greenstreet (Project Leader, Marine Lives).

Philip and Colin are forming a small research team to complete the research and writing of the paper. Two existing members of the MarineLives project team are joining the research team – Dr Janet Few, a community historian, and Karen Gunnell, a professional archivist with marine historical interests.

We would like to supplement the research team with two further volunteer graduate research associates.  Specifically we are looking for seventy hours of your research time, spread over the next four or five months.  We plan to complete research by the end of June and to submit the paper by the end of July 2013, in time for consideration for publication in a planned edition of conference papers.

At the core of the research is a social and economic reconstruction of the crew of the Owners Adventure and the Greyhound, the two whaling ships commanded by Thomas Damerell, and of their financiers.

If you join us in this work you will receive a rigorous training in collaborative research techniques, drawing on Colin Greenstreet’s training as a management consultant at McKinsey and Booz.Allen & Hamilton, and on Philip Hnatkovich’s and Colin’s training and practical experience of historical research.

You will be introduced to developing hypothesis based issue analysis, writing research and source evaluation plans, and meticulous demographic reconstruction.

You will also gain and contribute to an understanding of contract and incentive structures in English whaling in the 1650s, and to the economics and risk management of such ventures in the same period. Much of the detailed evidence will be drawn from High Court of Admiralty of England and Chancery Court litigation, and there will be a chance to explore how litigation was used by litigious financiers in an attempt to rewrite economic outcomes, and how ship owners and crew members responded and resisted such attempts.

If you would like to learn more about this opportunity, please contact us using this contact form.

ERC-Exeter Conference Paper Outline

“Each according to his office”: Risk, rank, and labour in English whaling enterprise at Spitsbergen, 1656-7

Authors: Philip Hnatkovich (Ph.D. Candidate, Pennsylvania State University) & Colin Greenstreet (Project Leader, MarineLives[i])

This paper examines the environmental, financial, and social pressures upon and within seventeenth-century English arctic whaling enterprise through a microhistory of a botched English venture in southern “Greeneland” (Spitzbergen) in the summer of 1656. The role of rank and the specific “offices” of the men involved in the venture are explored in the context of the high physical and commercial risk of whaling as an enterprise, and the highly differentiated nature of labour to successfully find, catch, and process whales.

In this particular case, the failure of the Owners Adventure and its companion pinke, the Greyhound – put to sea by London merchant and experienced whaling entrepreneur Richard Batson – to return with their expected haul, resulted in multiple law suits and protracted litigation between the financiers, the ships’ officers and crew, and accompanying land men.  The litigation was centred upon the High Court of Admiralty of England (HCA), physically located at Doctors Commons in London, but extending to a suit brought before the Poultry Counter by an ordinary seaman, and a related suit in Chancery.

The crux of these cases was a dispute at sea between the young captain and commander Thomas Damerell and the more seasoned harpooners Edward Gosling, Richard Maundrie, and William Humfrey, who openly challenged Damerell’s decision to attempt landfall through an unusually thick and hazardous ice shelf.  Their standoff galvanized the crews, leading Damerell to accuse Gosling, Maundrie, and Humfrey of mutinous behaviour; Batson and his fellow merchants ultimately aligned with Damerell in the resulting litigation and refused to pay wages to the crews.

This personal and situational conflict, replayed in detail through depositions given by the principals, crew, and accompanying land men, to the judges of the High Court of Admiralty, serves as a cogent starting point for a discussion of the deeper, structural faultlines of whaling enterprise – and the conditions of English sea labour more generally – in the mid-seventeenth century.  As asserted by John Appleby, though Greenland whaling was an industry of increasing economic value in this period, its unique set of financing and working conditions remain poorly understood in maritime historiography.[ii]  Environmental conditions in the Arctic made whaling a particularly challenging and hazardous segment of English fisheries expansion in the early and mid-seventeenth century.  Its use of a labour-intensive, shore-processing industrial system, in contrast to the offshore processing of whales by the Dutch, required large numbers of men.  Greenland voyages included a novel mix of seafarers, routinely placing a number of novice landsmen alongside workers with specialized skills like harpooners, butchers, brewers, and coopers.  Furthermore, whaling was a highly competitive field which pitted vessels representing different companies – and different nations – against one another in a struggle for shore space and shrinking yields.  At mid-century, declining temperatures associated with the Little Ice Age fostered the partial collapse of Greenland whale stocks and shortened its fishing season, placing further pressures on enterprise and exacerbating competition.

Based on the account given in the HCA depositions, our essay first uses the shipboard challenge to Captain Damerell in order to dissect the mechanics of Greenland whaling, and highlights the tensions between the different specialised “offices” held by crew members. The technical skills of the harpoonists and their importance to the success of a whaling adventure enabled them to challenge the authority of the young captain Damerell.  We cross-reference these depositions with further legal records from the Chancery and Probate courts, and with a range of national, municipal, and parish records, including State Papers and hearth tax returns, to reconstruct the social backgrounds of the principal figures in the Owners Adventure-Greyhound litigation.[iii]  In doing so, we place the case within the broader commercial networks and regulatory conflicts affecting whaling in the Commonwealth period.

Our microanalysis is informed by the transcriptions and insights contributed by the members of the MarineLives project, a digital humanities initiative working toward a collaborative transcription and online database of the court materials contained in HCA volume 13/71, from which many of the depositions derive.[iv]  In total, an examination of the conflicts at the heart of the failed Spitsbergen enterprise of 1656 suggests the potential contributions that the continued digitization and enrichment of HCA materials can make toward a greater social history of sea labor in the early modern age.

The series has been written to illustrate the research potential of the High Court of Admiralty records.  In this case, into commercial practices of whaling, into the seventeenth century arctic environment, and into historical technology.

SERIES PREVIEW

In this first article we set the scene – exploring the 1650s arctic ice, looking for whales, and meeting a lively cast of characters.

The second article in the series explores the geography and environment of whale fishing off “Greeneland” (Spitzbergen), focussing on the route and travails of two ships, the Owners Adventure and the Greyhound, captained and commanded by Thomas Damerell.

The last article deals with the technology and material culture of mid-seventeenth century English whaling, including the chasing of the whale in six man oared shallops and the boiling of blubber in shore based furnaces on Spitzbergen, as well as at Blackwall on the River Thames.

SETTING THE SCENE

The normal practice of English arctic (“Greeneland”) whalers, was to establish a summer base on the shore of one of a number of southern Spitzbergen bays.

This required fragile wooden ships to penetrate the sea ice to the whale rich coastal bays, towed by their crews in the ships’ shallops or wherries.  Success in working through the ice was highly dependent on the arctic weather, and on the courage and skill of the whaling crews.  The ships carried sizeable crews, appropriate to the challenges of navigation through ice and to the people intensive hunting of the whales.  The harpooners were highly experienced men, who knew the conditions of the ice intimately from many summers in the north.

The whales were hunted in the bays, where they were harpooned from the same ships’ shallops, and eventually lanced and killed, before being towed to shore.  There “land men” stripped the blubber from the carcasses and reduced the tissue to oil in large metal furnaces.  Skilled butchers, brewers and coopers augmented the muscle of general labouring landsmen.

Travelling on the Owners Adventure was Maurice Foarde, a thirty year old brewer from Shadwell. He had been hired by Captain Damerell “to goe a copper man for boyleing of the whales taken the sayd voyage.”²  He was joined by Edward Ashmore, a forty year old butcher from Whitechappel and Edward Reynolds, a fifty yeare old cooper from Saint Botolph Algate.^{3 4} All told, there were thirteen land men together on the Owners Adventure and the Greyhound, with at least twenty-five mariners.  The land men of the two ships were supervised by Richard Kirton, a forty year old Ratcliff man. Kirton’s job?  That the landsmen “did their office and duty in cutting up and boyleing and ordering of such whales as should bee taken the sayd voyage.⁵

In contrast, the Dutch, by the mid-seventeenth century, made use of furnaces on their ships to boil blubber whilst at sea.⁶

The proximate cause of the dispute between Richard Batson and Edward Gosling was the failure in May and June 1656 of the two ships under the command of Thomas Damerell to reach the southern Spitzbergen shore in unusually heavy ice.  Given the available technology and feeding habits of the preferred species of whales, it was much harder to fill the ships away from the rich hunting grounds of the bays.

They returned home near empty handed “onely with as much bloober as made (when it was boyled at Blackwall) eighteene tonns and upwards of oyle and the finns of two whales.”⁷  Even the blubber was largely of walruses, rather than whales, having “about twenty butts of blubber of sea horses“, which they had stripped from carcasses of walruses killed by Dutchmen on Hope Island.⁸  The Dutch took only the walrus teeth, which a contemporary writer on Dutch Spitzbergen estimated to be of greater value than ivory.⁹

The contrast with the other four London ships was painful.  Despite the undoubtedly tough ice conditions, they had brought back considerable quantities of blubber and oil, having finally put into shore on 13th of July.¹⁰

The adventure, with its failure to gain any harbour, took a heavy toll on Damerell’s crews, especially the crew of the pinke, the Greyhound.  On the Owners Adventure many “for want of refreshment on shore fell sick of the scurvie, and some of the Greyhounds Company dyed thereof.”¹¹

Richard Batson was the lead London merchant behind the financing of Damerell’s whaling adventure, and was joined in the action by his fellow London merchants and partners, Humfrey Beane and Gowan Golderne, who are collectively described in the litigation as Batson and Company.

Edward Gosling was masters mate and one of the harpooners on the the larger of the two ships, the Owners Adventure, which accompanied the smaller pinke, the Greyhound.  Gosling was joined in the action by Richard Maundrie and William Humfreye, respectively fellow masters mate and harpooner on the Owners Adventure, and company member and harpooner on the same ship.

At the heart of the problem was the condition of the Spitzbergen ice sheet that summer, and the failure of Damerells ships to get to shore, first at Bell Sound, and then anywhere else on the coast of Spitzbergen.  There was also a simmering conflict between Captain Damerell and Edward Gosling.  This started with their conflicting judgements on the risks of the Bell sound ice, and continued throughout the voyage.

After returning to London, Damerell (and his backers) attempted to blame Gosling, his fellow masters mate, the harpooner Richard Maundry, and a third harpooner, William Humfrey, for the failure of the adventure.  The financiers refused to pay the crews wages and a war of litigation broke out with multiple suits and over a hundred pages of depositions in the High Court of Admiralty.

THE WRONG KIND OF ICE

It was the carpenter’s third voyage to Greenland, all three in the service of Batson Beane and Golderne.  The condition of the ice had been much easier on the first two voyages, as the carpenter, William Clarkson, told the court:

“His first voyage was in the Richard (one Mr Peryman Master) which shipp went to Bell Sound to first where shee safely arrived and the second voyage was in the Gentleman of London (the foresayd Damerell Master) which shipp went to the foreland point, and to Smiths Bay Crosse Road, Port Nock, and Ducks Cove and anchored safely in all those harbours or places, and the last voyage being the voyage in question, in the Owners Adventure (the sayd Damerell Master) in which as is predeposed shee gott not at all to harbour,

And saith that the sayd first voyage there was little or noe Ice upon the Coast, in soe much that a smale wherrie might safely have passed into harbour, And that the sayd second voyage there was smale store of Ice in soe much that  in this deponents Judgement there was not by a thousand parts soe much Ice as was the voyage in question.

And that the voyage in question there was soe great store of Ice that in the judgement of the sayd Damerell himselfe and all the masters of the other shipps Company with him they never sawe soe great a quantitie of Ice upon the Coast and soe they and the sayd Damerell did saye and declare severall tymes in presence of this deponent and others of their shipps Companies whilst they were at Greeneland and since.”^{12a 12b}

The condition of the arctic ice was highly changeable, so that:

“At Greeneland the Ice doth usually open and shutt, and men that goe thither when great yeares of Ice are most watch their opportunitie to get into harbour.”^12b

Taking an opportunity to tow a ship through light ice was one thing, but in June 1656 conditions were horrendous.  Captain Damarell’s men were exhausted from working their two ships through leagues of heavy ice, fending off iceflows as they progressed into Bell Sound. The four other English Captains decided to turn back, but Damerell was determined to press on.

Captain James Golding, The master of the Merchant Adventure, was astonished by Damerell’s appetite for risk.  William Clarkson recalled:

“The arlate Master Golding (leaning over the Quarter of his own shipp) called to Richard Maundry then aboard the Owners Adventure and sayd thus, or the like in effect, Dick, I thinke your Master (meaning the sayd Damerell) is madd, for hee hath bin at us (meaning himselfe and the sayd Master Welch) to worke further into the Ice toward shoare, and seeing our selves to the Northward of our harbour thinke it to gett in, the Ice being soe thick and wee soe farr northerly, that and are therefore mynded to worke out to sea againe.”¹³

Clarkson himself “supposed the danger soe great shee the (Owners Adventure) being soe farr in the Ice that the least gale of a Westerly winde would sinke the sayd shipp and stave her to peeces.”¹⁴

The dangers of working a ship through thick ice were acute. Captain Pybus’ ship came close to disaster in the same ice that Captain Damerell was determined to press through:

“The sayd Pybus his shipp by her goeing into the Ice at the same tyme and place (though not soe farr as the Owners Adventure did) was soe much damnified and hurt thereby and by breaking through the Ice againe to sea, that when shee was gott cleere to Sea she was ready to sinke by reason of a hole the Ice had staved in her bowe, at which shee tooke five or sixe feete water in hold, and her company were ready to forsake her had shee not ther had the helpe of the Companyes of the sayd Golding Welch and Child their shipps, and of the Company of the Owners Adventure to helpe to pumpe her and stopp her leake.”¹⁵

The historian John Appleby has summarised the difficulties facing whalers off Spitbergen from the 1640s onwards:

“The underlying competition for access to the southern sounds and bays at Spitsbergen, an inherent characteristic of the trade since its earliest days, appears to have been intensified by the declining number of whales due to, particularly the onset of colder weather during the 1640s and beyond.  Not only did this leave bays and harbours enveloped with ice for longer, cutting the hunting season, but also it may have contributed to increasing mortality among whales…According to the Company, even the “best Harbors make more loosing voyages than gayning, but once in 3,4, or 5 yeares the Whales Coming in plentifully by scoales.”¹⁶

Undoubtedly 1656 was a tough year in a tough decade, but the relative success of the other whaling ships left Captain Damerell exposed, and determined to excuse himself through allegations of mutinous behaviour by Gosling and Maundry. Batson and his fellow owners chose to side with the captain, to the disgust of the crews.

THE MAIN MEN

Richard Batson (alt. Battison) (b. ?, d. ca. 1667) was a cutler and a successful London merchant, as well as the part-owner of the Owners Merchant, and a freighter and employer of the accompanying pinke, the Greyhound.¹⁷

In contemporary records, he often appears as the lead merchant in Batson and Company. This firm had a substantial interest in the Greenland fishery in terms of capital commitment and activity.

When the Yarmouth merchant and whaler, Thomas Horth (alt. Howarth), proposed in 1654 that English merchants should supply 3000 tons and 500 men for the Greenland fisheries, he pencilled in 200 tons for “Battison and partners.” A further 300 tons were suggested for Whitwell and partners, 500 tons for unnamed Yarmouth merchants, and 1600 tons for unnamed London merchants.¹⁸

The second owner and financier was Humfrey Beane (b. ?1613, d. 1679/80), a cordwainer and merchant, and also part owner, freighter and employer of the Owners Adventure and part freighter and employer of the Greyhound.¹⁹

Humfrey (alt. Humphrey) Beane of Ebisham (alt. Epsom), Surrey, had broad commercial interests. J.R. Woodhead suggests that Beane was available at the Turkey Walk on the Exchange, and that he had “great interest in Greenland whale fisheries.” A dissenter, Beane was buried in Bunhill Fields.²⁰

In a further case in HCA 13/71, Humphrey Beane and Company is identified by the master of the Sarah as the owner of the same ship, which was captured by a privateer off West Africa carrying black slaves and elephants teeth and bound for Virginia.²¹

Thomas Damerell (b. ca.1619, d. ?) was the master of the Owners Adventure and the commander, director and orderer of the Greyhound.  He was thirty-seven when the events took place and described himself as a mariner from Limehouse, in the parish of Stepney.

Gowan Golderne (alt. Goldagne; Goldegay; Goldgay) (poss. b. ?1614, poss. d. ?1657) was the third of the named part-owners and financiers of the two ships in question. He is likely to have been a merchant.  His unusual name appears only occasionally in records, in 1647 when appointed to a committee of the militia in Southwark, and as having unsucessfully sold on a job lot of prize commission tobacco in 1653.²²

Edward Gosling (alt. Goslin) (b. ?, d. ?), the prime object of the suit against Batson et al., was an experienced mariner and harpooner, who believed he had the confidence of Richard Batson.

William Humfrey (alt. Humphrey) (b.?, d.?).  Member of the company of the Owners Adventure and a harpooner.  Humfrey was the third crew member named, after Gosling and Maundrie, in the suit against Batson et al.

Richard Maundrie (alt. Maundrey, Mandry) (b. ?, d. ?) was Gosling’s fellow masters mate and a harpooner on the Owners Adventure.  It is possible that he was from the family of Maundrey mariners in the Thames estuary town of Leigh on the Essex shore. Leigh (alt. Lee, Lee-on-sea), together with neighbouring Eastwood, was home in the early seventeenth century to a number of important mariner and merchant families, including Goodlads, the Haddocks, and the Moyers. Fifteen miles downstream of Tilbury and Gravesend, the town was a popular point for pilots to embark and disembark onto ships. It was the home of the writer Samuel Purchas, and had a strong link with the Greenland trade through William Goodlad (b., d. 1639), who had been chief commander of the English Greenland fleet for twenty years.²³

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The article is based upon the collective work of all five MarineLives transcription teams, and has been made possible through the transcriptions, insights and support of thirteen project associates and facilitators:

Dr Janet Few, Karen Gunnell, Colin Greenstreet, Dr Liam Haydon, Philip Hnatkovich, Alex Jackson, William Kellett, David Pashley, Daniel Richards, Laura Seymour, Alexis Harasemovitch Truax, William Tullett, and Jill Wilcox.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

(1) Cornelis de Man, Detail of Smerenburg land station of the Noordsche Compagnie on Amsterdamøya Island, off northwest coast of West-Spitsbergen, oil on canvas (1639), sourced from wikimedia

(2) Anonymous, Whale boat off Eden, New South Wales, Australia, towed by a harpooned whale, photograph (late C19th)

(3) Detail showing Spitzbergen and surrounding seas, from Augustus Petermann, Map of the sea of Spitzbergen, to illustrate ‘Sir John Franklin, the sea of Spitzbergen and whale-fisheries in the Arctic regions,’ Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. 23, 1853, betw. pp. 130 & 131, viewed 10/01/13, sourced from an Internet Archive edition

(4) Fig. 194, Woodcut, in Thevet, Cosmographie Universelle (Paris, 1574), sourced from an Internet Archive edition

(5) Edges’s map of Greenland (Spitzbergen), ca. 1611, published in James Travis Jenkins, A history of the whale fisheries: from the Basque fisheries of the tenth century to the hunting of the finner whale at the present date (London, 1921), facing p.58, sourced from an Internet Archive edition, viewed 10/01/13

(6) Detail showing Bell Point and Bell Sound, from Edge’s map of Greenland (Spitzbergen), ca. 1611, sourced from an Internet Archive edition

FOOT NOTES

(1) HCA 13/71 contains 13 separate depositions relating to the dispute between Batson and Gosling. HCA 13/128 contains several answers addressing different aspects of the same dispute.

HCA 13/71 ff.463r-469r Case: Batson against Gosling and others; Deposition: 1. John Ely of Saint Mary Magdalen Bermondsey in the County of Surrey Mariner aged twenty eight yeares; Date: 18/12/1656.

HCA 13/71 ff.469r-472v Case: Batson against Gosling and others; Deposition: 2. John Colvile of Ratcliff in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner Gunner of the Owners Adventure aged thirty sixe yeares; Date: 29/12/1656.

HCA 13/71 ff.472v-477v Case: Batson against Gosling and others; Deposition: 3. William Clarkson of Shadwell in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Shipwright Carpenter of the Owners Adventure aged twenty nyne yeares; Date: 03/01/1656

HCA 13/71 ff.479r-484r Case: Richard Batson Humfrey Beane Gowan Golderne and Company against Edward Goslinge Richard Maundrie and William Humfreye; Deposition: 1. Thomas Damerell of Lymehouse in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner Master of the shipp the Owners Adventure and Commander alsoe of the Greyhound aged 37 yeares; Date: 23/12/1656.

HCA 13/71 ff.484r-488v Case: Richard Batson Humfrey Beane Gowan Golderne and Company against Edward Goslinge Richard Maundrie and William Humfreye; Deposition: 2. Edmond Reynolds of the parish of Saint Botolph Algate London Cooper and Cooper of the Owners Adventure for the voyage in question aged fifty yeares; Date: 01/01/1656(57).

HCA 13/71 ff.488v-490v Case: Richard Batson Humfrey Beane Gowan Golderne and Company against Edward Goslinge Richard Maundrie and William Humfreye; Deposition: 3. Thomas Chauntrell of the parish of Saint Bottolphe Algate London Cooper, and Coopers Mate of the Owners Adventure the voyage in question aged twenty five yeares; Date: 07/01/1656(57)

HCA 13/71 ff.490v-493v Case: Richard Batson Humfrey Beane Gowan Golderne and Company against Edward Goslinge Richard Maundrie and William Humfreye; Deposition: 4. Edward Ashmore of Saint Mary Matsellon Whitechappell London Butcher aged 42 yeares; Date: 09/01/1656(57).

HCA 13/71 ff.493v-497v Case: Richard Batson Humfrey Beane Gowan Golderne and Company against Edward Goslinge Richard Maundrie and William Humfreye; Deposition: 5. Maurice ffoard of Shadwell in the parish of Stepney and the County of Middlesex Brewer aged thirty yeares; Date: CHECK(57)

HCA 13/71 ff.500r-502r Case: Batson against Gosling and others; Deposition: 6. Richard Kirton of Ratcliff in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Overseer of the Landsmen in the Owners Adventure and the Greyhound aged forty yeares; Date: 29/01/1656(57).

HCA 13/71 ff.578r-581v Case: Batson against Gosling and others; Deposition: 4. Lovewell Luckett of the parish of Saint Olave Southwarke Mariner aged twenty two yeares; Date: 12/02/1656(57).

HCA 13/71 ff.581v-586v Case: Batson against Gosling and others; Deposition: 5. Jeramie Joffrey of Ratcliff in the County of Middlesex Rope Maker aged thirty eight; Date: 16/02/1656(57).

HCA 13/71 ff.586v-589r Case: Batson against Gosling and others; Deposition: 6. John Pibus of Greenwich in the Count of Kent Mariner master of the shipp the Adventure of hull aged forty fower yeares; Date: 28/02/1655(57).

HCA 13/71 ff.589r-591r Case: Batson against Gosling and others; Deposition: 7. Nicholas Parkins of Wapping in the parish of Stepney and County of Middlesex Mariner aged forty yeares; Date: 02/03/1655(57).

HCA 13/128 no foliation Case: Henry ffreeman and others against Richard Batson, Humphrey Beane, and Gowen Goldegay; Answer & schedule of unpaid wages: Richard Batson, Humphrey Beane, and Gowen Goldegay: Date: January 13th 1656 (57).

HCA 13/128 no foliation Case; Edward Gosling and Richard Mandrye against Richard Batson, Humfry Beane, and Gowen Goldgue; Date: February ?8th 1656(67).

HCA 13/128 no foliation Case: Edward Gosling, wages; Answer: Richard Batson; Date: Repeated in court on February 13th 1656(57)

HCA 13/128 no foliation Case: Batson and others against Edward Goslinge and others; Answer: Edward Goslin and Richard Maundery; Date: Repeated in court on April 15th 1657

(2) HCA 13/71 f.494r 

(3) HCA 13/71 f.490v

(4) HCA 13/71 f.484r

(5) HCA 13/71 f.500r

(6) HCA 13/128 (1656-58) Case: Edward Gosling, wages: Answer: Richard Batson; Undated, no foliation, recto

(7) HCA 13/71 f.500Av

(8) HCA 13/71 f.480v

(9) Hessel Gerritszoon van Assum, ‘Description of the new country, called by the Dutch Spitsbergen’ (Amsterdam, 1613), in William Martin Conway, Early Dutch and English Voyages to Spitsbergen in the Seventeenth Century (London, 1904), p.28), Internet Archive edition, viewed 19/10/12

(10) HCA 13/71 f.475r

(11) HCA 13/71 f.471r

(12a) HCA 13/71 f.476v

(12b) HCA 13/71 f.477r

(13) HCA 13/71 f.473v

(14) HCA 13/71 f.475v

(15) HCA 13/71 f.470v

(16) Appleby, John C., ‘Conflict, cooperation and competition: The rise and fall of the Hull whaling trade during the seventeenth century’, The Northern Mariner/le marin du nord, XVIII No. 2, (April 2008), p. 24), viewed 22/01/13

(17) ‘Batson, Richard’, in J.R. Woodhead, ‘Backwell – Byfield’, The Rulers of London 1660-1689: A biographical record of the Aldermen and Common Councilmen of the City of London (London, 1966), pp.21-42, viewed 10/01/13; PROB 11/324/232 Carr 59-116, Will of Richard Batson, Cutler, June 16th 1667

(18) ‘The Greenland trade from 1620 to 1673′, in William Robert Scott, The constitution and finance of English, Scottish, and Irish joint-stock companies to 1720, vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1910), p.74 and more generally pp, 69-75, Internet Archive edition, viewed 22/01/13

(19) PROB 4/1778 Beane, Humphrey, of Epsum alias Ebisham, Surrey, esq. 1680 6 Sept.

(20) ‘Beane, Humphrey’, in J.R. Woodhead, ”Backwell – Byfield’, The Rulers of London 1660-1689: A biographical record of the Aldermen and Common Councilment of the City of London (London, 1966), pp. 21-42, BHOL edition, viewed 22/01/13

(21) HCA 13/71 f.636v Case: A busines of Examinations of Witnesses on the behalfe of John Jeffreys, Thomas Colclough and Company Owners and employers of the shipp the Rappahannack whereof Thomas Clarke was Master and her tackle furniture and lading, And of humfrey Beane and Companie Owners of the shipp the Sarah, whereof Arthur Perkins was Master and of Robert Lewllin and Companie Owners of the goods in the same against John Scroall Captaine and Commander of the shipp the Mary of Amsterdam and the Unicorne of Middleburgh and against Vandergosse and Coymans and all others Owners of the said shipps in particular and all others in generall etcetera; Deposition: 4. Arthur Perkins of Wapping in the County of Middlesex Mariner Late Master of the said shipp the Sarah, aged 44 yeares; Date: 16/03/1656

(22) C.H. Firth, R.S. Rait (eds.), ‘September 1647: Ordinance to settle the Militia of Southwark.’, Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660 (1911), pp. 1010-1011, viewed 22/01/13

(23) H.W.King, ‘Ancient wills. No. 7.’ (A sketch of the genealogy of the Purchas family), in Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, vol. 4 (Colchester, 1869), pp. 166-71, Internet Archive edition, viewed 22/01/13

ABOUT US

The MarineLives project is run by volunteers.  New associates, facilitators and advisors are most welcome.  If you would like to learn more about the project and wish to explore how you might contribute to making the Admiralty Court records available to a wider academic and general public please contact us now, using our contact form. You can also follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

Since the start of the project in September 2012, the project team has transcribed 1025 pages containing approximately 560,000 words of HCA 13/71 (1656-1657).  The original manuscript volume is held at the National Archives in Kew.  We expect to complete transcription and editing of the entire volume by the end of March 2013.

The transcriptions referenced in our Shipping News blog are work in progress.  We encourage our readers to compare the transcriptions with the digital images of the transcribed pages.  If you see an error, or can fill in blanks in our transcriptions, we would be delighted to hear from you and we will incorporate your improvements.

TRANSCRIPTION AND EDITING

Our volunteer transcribers are back at work after the Christmas break, and we are celebrating the transcription of one thousand pages since the start of the project. That’s around five hundred and fifty thousand words in four and a half months, one third of which  have now been edited.  We are on track to complete the transcription and text editing of HCA 13/71 by the end of March this year.

A huge thank you to all our volunteer transcribers, who committed to the fourteen weeks of Phase One of the project, which finished on December 14th. In alphabetical order our transcribing associates have been Deborah Ashby, Rachel Bates, Katie Broke, Elio Calcagno, Dr Janet Few, Jamie LeAnne Hager Goodall, Karen Gunnell, Dr Liam Haydon, William Kellett, John Miller, David Pashley, Dr Cathryn Pearce, Andrew Richens, Daniel Richards, Laura Seymour, Ida Sjoberg, and Alexis Harasemovitch Truax.

Likewise in alphabetical order, our transcription team facilitators have been Colin Greenstreet, Philip Hnatkovich, Alex Jackson, William Tullett and Jill Wilcox.

Giovanni Colavizza and Patrizia Rebulla have led our semantic markup efforts, with Giovanni creating the technical platform used by the transcribing teams, based upon the open source software package SCRIPTO. Gordon O’Sullivan project managed the establishment of our PhD Forum.

Our project advisors have been Dr Richard Blakemore (Exeter), Dr Catherine Buchanan (Westminster School), Dr Stuart Dunn (King’s College London), Dr Charlene Eska (Virginia Tech), Margaret Schotte (PhD Candidate, Princeton), Jo Pugh (National Archives), and Vikki Corker (National Archives).

We must be doing something right, since half of our team have revolunteered to continue transcribing till the end of March and to finish the volume.

Since Christmas we have reduced our transcription teams from five to two in number.

These are led by two of our team facilitators, William Tullett, a masters student at King’s College, London, and Alex Jackson, a recent masters graduate from the University of Sheffield.

Working with William and Alex are Dr Janet Few, Karen Gunnell, Jamie LeAnne Hager, Dr Liam Haydon, Philip Hnatkovich, Dr Cathryn Pearce, David Pashley, and Laura Seymour.

We are down to the tougher pages, written by two High Court of Admiralty clerks who would have benefited from advanced handwriting lessons.  If you are an experienced and enthusiastic transcriber who likes challenging texts, you would be very welcome to join us for these last two and a half months of transcription. You can get in touch with our transcription teams using this contact form.

PHD FORUM

Two successful online PhD forum sessions took place in January – the first on geography, trade, commerce and law, convened by Philip Hnatkovich (Penn State) and Dr Richard Blakemore (Exeter); the second on material culture and language, convened by Dr Liam Haydon (Manchester) and Laura Seymour (Birkbeck College, London).

Participating in the two sessions, in addition to the convenors, were Dr Charlene Eska (Virginia Tech), Colin Greenstreet (MarineLives project leader), Jamie LeAnne Hager Goodall (Ohio State), Sue Jones (Birkbeck College, London), Katherine Parker (Pittsburgh), Dr Cathryn Pearce (Greenwich Maritime Institute), (Margaret Schotte (Princeton), Steven Schrum (Washington University, Saint Louis), and Royline Williams-Fontenelle (Oklahoma).

We plan to hold further online forum sessions and are open to new members, both PhD candidates and early career researchers.  You can get in touch with our PhD Forum convenors using this contact form.

PHASE TWO AND CALL FOR PARTNERS

Our leadership team is working with our project advisors and our PhD Forum members to develop our goals, project plan and financing for Phase Two of the MarineLives project.

We have identified four potential modules for Phase Two, starting between June and October 2013.

Possible Phase Two Modules

(1) Module: Semantic markup of transcribed text of HCA 13/71

Our aspiration is to develop a TEI-compliant semantically marked up text for HCA 13/71 which will enable us to perform sophisticated searches, and to display data directly as text, and indirectly accessible through a GIS supported environment.  We know broadly what we want to do, and have commenced semantic coding, but we need to partner with a university department with strong TEI expertise to ensure we have a robust conceptual plan, and that this module is successfully delivered.  We believe that this module could form the basis for a small scale academic grant application.

(2) Module: GIS enablement of HCA 13/71

We wish to display HCA 13/71 text and data in a GIS-enabled environment.  This has been mentioned in a recent blog posting, Mapping Marine Lives.

We have taken a look at existing software, and have thought about conceptual frameworks, but we are not GIS experts, and would benefit greatly from partnering with an institution with GIS interests and expertise.

We are currently working with our newly formed PhD Forum to develop a more detailed set of user requirements for GIS capability.

(3) Module: Linkage and annotation

We are interested in linking the data in HCA 13/71 to other primary and secondary sources, both digitally and non-digitally.  We have started this process, but are now exploring how we might do this more systematically, both by theme and by source type. We are also exploring possible annotation software which we might integrate into our digital edition on our planned production server.  There is the potential to develop a module around this activity, involving both a technical partner and one or more content partners.

(4) Module: Integration of HCA 13/71 digital edition with innovative search engines

We have started discussions with the Discovery search engine team at the National Archives about the potential to integrate our future production server and its associated data and software with the new Discovery search engine.

We are also interested in integrating our metadata into federated and other search engines.

We have a number of innovative ideas about historical search and linkage, and would welcome contact with academics and institutions who share our ambitious vision for search and linkage of primary documents and archival metadata.  You can contact us to discuss search and linkage using the following contact form.

GRANT APPLICATIONS

Fingers crossed for MarineLives editorial advisor Dr Charlene Eska (Virginia Tech), who has submitted a grant application to the National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington D.C.

Dr Eska plans, if successful, to employ a PhD candidate to work on textual and semantic editing connected to the MarineLives project.

PUBLISHING PROJECTS

We are interested in hearing from academic publishers who take in an integrative approach to seventeenth century marine and social history.

Potential publication projects include a guide to the High Court of Admiralty, in print and electronic formats, linked to a production server supporting the MarineLives project.

You can get in touch with our publication coordinator using this contact form.

Marine Lives PhD forum members study and teach at the universities or colleges of Birkbeck, London; Cambridge; Exeter; Greenwich Maritime Institute; Manchester; Ohio State; Oxford; Oklahoma; Pennsylvania State; Pittsburgh; Princeton; Queen Marys, London; Washington, St Louis.

We are taking the admiralty court volume HCA 13/71 as our starting point, and will be exploring its potential, and that of admiralty court records more generally, to assist researchers and readers in deepening their understanding of these topics.

PhD candidates and early career researchers who wish to discuss joining our established PhD forum should contact us using our contact form.

The Shipping News blog is the project’s principal means of communicating with a wider audience, and we would like some direction from you, our readers.  We are developing synthesised and annotated material on a range of themes, some of which we have already shared with you in this blog.  We would like to know which topics interest you so that we can prioritise our blog publication plans.

Below is a list of themes on which we are working, all of which could form the basis of a blog article.  Please let us know which of these themes interest you and which you would like to see in print, using our contact form.

We are also exploring the mapping of data from HCA 13/71 and would welcome your suggestions as to data you would like to see mapped.  Contact us using our contact form telling us the data you would like to see mapped and we will do our best to turn it into a Google Map, providing access to relevant depositions and cases within HCA 13/71 which make reference to the data. See our experimental map of some of our French data contained within HCA 13/71.  If your are a GIS expert and would like to work with us to create some powerful functionality, we would love to hear from you.

If you would like to participate in the synthesise and annotation of any of these themes, we would be delighted to have you join our annotation team, which we are in the process of forming for Phase Two of the MarineLives project

WHICH BLOG THEMES DO YOU WANT TO READ ABOUT?

Admiralty and marine related commercial law

Bound for Barbary

Brest men of war

Credit

Currants and raisins trade

Customs and excise

Discipline

Dover

Dunkirk men of war

English coastal trading

Factors and agents

Female involvement in marine activities

Fish

French merchants

High Court of Admiralty process

Injury and death

Interpretation

Language

Literacy

London taverns

Market conditions

Masquerade

Merchant accounts

Metals trade

Oranges and lemons trade

Ostend men of war

Privateering and piracy

Ports

Portuguese merchants in London

Swedish and Norwegian merchants

Thames estuary

Thames shipyards in the 1650s

The Exchange in the City of London

Timber trade

Violence

Wine trade

Wine trade

TELL US WHAT MAPS WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE

The MarineLives project team is exploring the use of maps to display data from the Admiralty Court.  We would like to hear from you our readers as to what categories of data you would like to see mapped.

Below is an example of what can be produced using some (though not all) of the French related merchant and mariner data in HCA 13/7111.

View larger map

Contact us using our contact form and we will produce a bespoke map for you (and our readership) in Google Map and publish it on the Shipping News blog.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

(1) The Coast of Barbary & the Maroc to Quibriche Caravan Route, Manesson, A. (1719), sourced from Internet Archive

(2) Stettin, Hollandische Merkur (Haerlem, 1660), sourced from Internet Archive

(3) Tower Street , Thames Street and the Legal Quays, Roque, 1746, sourced from Wikimedia commons

ABOUT US

The MarineLives project is run by volunteers.  New associates, facilitators and advisors are most welcome.  If you would like to learn more about the project and wish to explore how you might contribute to making the Admiralty Court records available to a wider academic and general public please contact us now, using our contact form. You can also follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

Since the start of the project in September 2012, the project team has transcribed 980 pages containing approximately 540,000 words of HCA 13/71 (1656-1657).  The original manuscript volume is held at the National Archives in Kew.  We expect to complete transcription and editing of the entire volume by the end of March 2013.

The transcriptions referenced in our Shipping News blog are work in progress.  We encourage our readers to compare the transcriptions with the digital images of the transcribed pages.  If you see an error, or can fill in blanks in our transcriptions, we would be delighted to hear from you and we will incorporate your improvements.

Throughout this testing period, even during the multiple Anglo-Dutch wars, the lives and families of highly mobile apprentices, merchants and mariners led to intimate and mutually beneficial commercial and cultural contact.

This blog article deals specifically with the character and geographical mobility of a selection of merchants based in Amsterdam and London identified in the Admiralty Court of England and mentioned in HCA 13/71.

Dutch merchants in Amsterdam

Frederick Wolfe, living near Saint Anthonies port in Amsterdam, merchant

Frederick Wolfe was an Amsterdam merchant, who was the correspondent of Domingos vas da Britto, a forty year old merchant living in London. Wolf lived near Saint Anthonies port in Amsterdam, where da Britto’s now servant, Manoel Perera, had earlier lived with Wolf for four and a half years.

Twenty-one year old Manoel Perera now lived in London as a merchant servant and testified in the Admiralty Court of England:

“37. To the seaventh article hee saith that hee well knoweth the producent
38. ffrederick Wolfe and hath soe donne for theise thirteene yeeres last past
39. or thereabouts, and saith the said ffrederick for eight yeeres of that time
40. hath lived at Amsterdam, where hee was and is an Inhabitant and
41. Burger, and keepes his wife, children and familie there neere in his
42. house being neere Saint Anthonies port, as hee this deponent hath
43. lived fower yeeres and a halfe with him, ended about three yeeres since
44. and this deponents master Mr da Britto hath continuall correspondence
45. with him by lettres of this deponents knowledge, And saith the said producent
46. was and is a subiect of the States of the United Netherlands and
47. for such commonly accompted. And otherwise hee cannot depose.”¹

However, Frederick Wolf had spent his childhood in Lisbon, as had Domingos vas da Britto. The two merchants had known each other from infancy and had gone to school together in Lisbon.

“9. To the seaventh article of the said allegation hee saith and deposeth that hee
10. well knoweth the producent named ffrederick Wolfe and hath soe donne
11. from the infancie of the said producent and of this deponent, they goeing
12. to schoole together at Lisbone, and saith that for theise eight yeares last
13. or thereabouts the said producent hath lived and liveth in Amsterdam as a
14. Merchant, and was and is an inhabitant of that citie, and a subiect
15. of the Lords the States of the United Netherlands. and for such commonly
16. accompted….”²

Charles Gabrij, merchant of Amsterdam, aged 45

Charles Gabrij testified in the case of “The claime of Peter Reynolds Gilbert Van Sisteren and John Swaen in the hare in the feild“. He confirmed the Amsterdam residence and statehood of John de Swaen, one of the three litigants, but was uncertain whether he knew Peter Reynolds in person.

“40. Charles Gabrij of Amsterdam Marchant aged 45
41. yeares or thereabouts sworne and examined.
42. To the said allegation hee saith that hee well knoweth the producent
43. John de Swaen and hath soe donne for theise seaven yeares last past
44. or thereabouts, during which space hee the said John hath bin an Inhabitant
45. of Amsterdam where hee is a marchant and keeps house and
46. familie there, and saith hee was and is a subiect of the Lords
47. the States of the United Netherlands and for such commonly accompted,
48. and which hee deposeth living alsoe and in Amsterdam (where hee
49. hath dwelt about thirtin yeares) and being well acquainted with
50. the said John de Swaen. And saith hee well knew the father
51. and knoweth the brother of the arlate Peter Reynaldo who is
52. commonly accompted a native of Amsterdam and a subiect of the
53. said States, but this deponent is not sure that hee knoweth
54. the person of the said Peter And otherwise hee cannot depose.”³

Dutch AND FLEMISH merchants in LONDON

Abraham Bald, twenty-six year old Dutch merchant in London since 1655

Phillip van Hulten was an Amsterdam merchant, known to Abraham Bald, a young twenty-six year old Dutch merchant, who had been living in London since 1655, but who had been born in Amsterdam. Bald testified that he had known Phillip van Hulten, resident in the Lady Gracht in Amsterdam, for five years.

“11. To the tenth article of the said allegation hee saith and deposeth that
12. hee well knoweth the producent Phillip van Hulten and hee
13. hath donne for these five yeares last or thereabouts this deponent
14. for all that time and (untill about elevene moneths since hee
15. came to live in London) dwelling in Amsterdam where he was borne
16. and where he had acquaintance and dealing with the said Phillip
17. in the way of merchandize, and saith the said Phillip then
18. dwelt (and as hee believeth still dwelleth) on the Lady Gracht
19. in Amsterdam, in the house where his father (whom this deponent
20. alsoe well knowe dwelt before hin, and further that for said
21. producent was and is a merchant of good account and an
22. Inhabitant and free citizen of Amsterdam (where this deponent
23. beleeveth hee was borne) and a subject of the Lords the States
24. of the United Netherlands, and for such commonly accompted.
25. and further hee deposeth not.”⁴

Philip Copy, a flemish merchant, living in London, aged 36

Philip Copy attested to the Amsterdam residence of Gilbert Van Sisteren, the third of the plaintiffs in the case of “The claime of Peter Reynolds Gilbert Van Sisteren and John Swaen in the hare in the feild“, as well as the Amsterdam residence of John de Swaen, whose correspondence he had answered from a previous residence in Dunquirke. Copy himself was a native of Rosborough in fflanders, in the Dominion of the King of Spain.

7. Philip Copy of London Merchant aged 36
8. yeares or thereabouts sworne and examined.
9. To the said allegation hee saith and deposeth that hee well knoweth
10. the producent Gilbert van Sisteren and hath soe done for the
11. tenn monethes last past or thereabouts, and hath oftentimes seene
12. him in that space; and saith the said Gilbert is an Inhabitant of
13. Amsterdam, whence this deponent hath received lettres from him, dated
14. there, and saith hee that hee the said Gilbert is a native of the
15. Busse or S’Hertogen bosch in the Dominion of the Lords the States
16. of the United Netherlands, and a subiect of the said States and for
17. such commonly accompted and reputed. And otherwise hee cannot
18. depose, saving that within a yeere last this deponent living at
19. Dunquirke received lettres from the arlate John de Swaen dated at
20. Amsterdam (the Place of his residence; and directed to his brother correspon
21. =dent living in house with this deponent, and then absent, this deponent
22. having order to receive his lettres in his absence and answer them, which this
23. deponent did and wrote accordingly to the said John de Swaen to
24. Amsterdam./”⁵

Charles Marescoe, twenty-five, merchant in London

In contrast, twenty-five year old Charles Marescoe had spent most of his life in England

1. To the 3 Interrogatorie hee saith hee hath lived in England about sixteene yeares
2. continually and hath before that lived both in holland ˹and˺ in fflanders only
3. as a schoole boy for some short tyme as at Amsterdam in holland and
4. Lisle in fflanders and saith that hee hath seene printed Coppyes of
5. the last treaty betwixt Spaine and the United Provinces wherein to the best
6. of his remembrance there is an Article that noe shipp of warr belonging
7. to the King of Spaine or his subiects shall molest search or take
8. any shipps belonging to the sayd States or their subiects though bound
9. to or comming from an enymyes Port And further saving his
10. foregoeing deposition hee cannot depose/”⁶

Charles Maresco’s commercial correspondence and papers have survived and are held at the National Archives, Kew. A portion of the papers have been edited by Henry Roseveare.⁷

FOOT NOTES

(1) HCA 13/71 f.58r Case: The claime of ffrederick Wolfe of Amsterdam in the Hare in the feild; Deposition: 2. Manoel Perera of London Merchant aged 21 (Signature of “Manuel Perreyra” at end of deposition); Date: 21/02/1655 (“same day”). Transcribed by Colin Greenstreet.
(2) HCA 13/71 f.58r Case: The claime of ffrederick Wolfe of Amsterdam in the Hare in the feild; Deposition: 1. Domingos vas da Britto of London Merchant aged 40 (Signature of “Domingo da Britto” at end of deposition) ; Date: 21/02/1655. Transcribed by Colin Greenstreet.

(3) HCA 13/71 f.64r Case: The claime of Peter Reynolds Gilbert Van Sisteren and John Swaen in the hare in the feild; Deposition: Charles Gabry of Amsterdam Merchant aged 45 yeares or thereabouts; Date: 01/03/1655 (“same day”). Transcribed by Colin Greenstreet and Jill Wilcox.

(4) HCA 13/71 f.57r Case: The claime of Phillip Van ?Hulten of Amsterdam for his goods in the Hare in the ffeild; Deposition: Abraham Baldd of London Merchant aged 26 (Signature of “Abraham Baldd” at end of deposition); Date: 19/02/1655. Transcribed by Karen Gunnell.

(5) HCA 13/71 f.64r Case: The claime of Peter Reynolds Gilbert Van Sisteren and John Swaen in the hare in the feild; Deposition: Philip Copy of London Merchant aged 36 yeares (Signature of “Phillipiis Coppey” at end of deposition) ; Date: 01/03/1655. Transcribed by Colin Greenstreet and Jill Wilcox.

(6) HCA 13/71 f.536v Case: Goodwin and Company against the Saint John; Deposition: 3. Charles Marescoe of Saint Bottolph Billingsgate London Merchant aged twenty five yeares (Signature of “Charles Marescoe” at end of deposition) ; Date: 04/02/1656. Transcribed by Colin Greenstreet.

(7) Henry Roseveare, Markets and Merchants of the Late Seventeenth Century: The Marescoe-David Letters, 1668-1680 (Oxford, 1987)

ABOUT US

The MarineLives project is run by volunteers.  New associates, facilitators and advisors are most welcome.  If you would like to learn more about the project and wish to explore how you might contribute to making the Admiralty Court records available to a wider academic and general public please contact us now, using our contact form. You can also follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

Since the start of the project in September 2012, the project team has transcribed 970 pages containing approximately 533,000 words of HCA 13/71 (1656-1657).  The original manuscript volume is held at the National Archives in Kew.  We expect to complete transcription and editing of the entire volume by the end of March 2013.

The transcriptions referenced in our Shipping News blog are work in progress.  We encourage our readers to compare the transcriptions with the digital images of the transcribed pages.  If you see an error, or can fill in blanks in our transcriptions, we would be delighted to hear from you and we will incorporate your improvements.