The Merchant Class

While browsing the Slave Voyages, I stumbled upon a English ship that sailed in the year 1563. Among the four owners of the ship, one stood out to me. It was a man by the name of Sir Lionel Duckett. Duckett was born in the year 1511 and was the lead of the London Mercer’s Company. He was known as a merchant adventurer and invested in journeys to discover the North-West Passage. Duckett was one of the richest men of his time; it is said that he gave a dowry of about £5000 in Tudor money and when asked why he did not give more, he responded that the Queen of England currently had only £10,000 in her exchequer.

Sir Lionel Duckett

In 1553, Lionel received monastic lands in surrey, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire. These lands were most likely property previously taken by King Henry VIII who broke off from the Catholic Church in 1534 because he wanted to divorce his current wife. Duckett was the Sheriff of London in 1565 and the Mayor in 1573. Lionel Duckett also was believed to have been a large financial supporter for the building of the Royal Exchange, which provided a place for commerce. Being part of the Merchant and Tudor classes, Lionel Duckett had the means to invest in early slave ships. These early English slave voyages were risky because, as we saw with the first ship, they were often hijacked or turn up as unsuccessful.

Upon researching further on the Voyages site, I found that the same four men, including Sir Lionel, owned a total of three ships that all sailed in the year of 1563. These ships: Swallow, Salomon, and Jonas purchased the slaves in Sierra Leone and ended up Santo Domingo.  The interesting part about these three ships is that they have three different captains; Thomas Hampton, John Hawkins, and Unknown. John Hawkins is the most interesting from these three because he was a well-known merchant and naval commander. We will soon learn more about John Hawkins in the posts to come.

John Hawkins

Bourne, H. (1869). Famous London merchants A book for boys. London: J. Hogg & Son.

Duckett, T.E.; "The Duckett Family History"; Privately published: 1960, Bristol, UK

Emory University. (n.d.). List of voyages. Retrieved October 21, 2015.

Markham, C. (1878). The Hawkins' voyages during the reigns of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, and James I. Surrey [England]: MarkGraves.

SLO #3