Richard Whitbourne

Sir Richard Whitbourne (* 1561 near Bishopsteignton , Devonshire , † before September 1635) was an English seaman, merchant, colonist in Newfoundland in Canada and author.

Life

Whitbourne, who was baptized on June 20, 1561, was apprenticed to a merchant adventurer in Southampton and sailed a lot in European waters and several times to Newfoundland, first in 1579. He whaled and traded with the Indians. Whitbourne was present in Newfoundland when it was annexed by Humphrey Gilbert in 1583 and when Bernard Drake attacked the Portuguese fishing fleet in 1585. He served under Admiral Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, on his own ship in the battle against the Spanish Armada in 1588 - and commanded three other ships - and was then mainly active in the cod fishery off Newfoundland. In 1615 he held a first court in North America and investigated offenses committed by fishermen against the colonists, commissioned by the British Admiralty. Like Richard Guy , however, he could do little, even if he collected statements from numerous captains. In 1612, 1614 and 1616 he was off Newfoundland with his own ships and intended to sell the fish he caught in the Mediterranean region. He became increasingly interested in the settlers in Newfoundland and took sides with them against the fishermen.

At the request of Sir William Vaughan , a speculator who had bought land in Newfoundland from the London and Bristol Company , he was governor of his colony in Renews , Newfoundland, founded in 1617, from 1618 to 1620 until Vaughan gave up the company. The settlers were poorly prepared and had little success. In 1620 he published a book to promote the settlement of Newfoundland. It is an important source for early Newfoundland history. He enthusiastically praises the possibilities for fishermen and settlers. Whitbourne also tried to win Lord Falkland for a continuation of the colony and in 1622 and 1626 visited the colony, which was ruled by Governor Francis Tanfield. In 1625 he was ennobled at the intercession of Falklands.

Whitbourne campaigned with the English King James I for the pardon of the pirate Peter Easton , who had previously held him captive for eleven weeks in 1612 in order to convert him to piracy himself, and he campaigned for the pirate Henry Mainwaring . The latter was initially a pirate hunter, but then turned into a pirate with attacks on the fishermen off Newfoundland.

He long owned a house near Exmouth on the Devonshire coast, but was buried in Teignmouth near his birthplace in August 1635. This and the news of a ship from Exmouth that sank in French waters in January 1634 led his biographer Richard Whidborne to suspect that he survived the shipwreck in France, that he died soon afterwards and that the body was transported to England.

He was married and had two daughters.

Fonts

• A Discourse and Discovery of New-found-land, London 1620, 2nd edition 1622
  • Excerpts in: T. Whitburn (Ed.), Westward hoe for Avalon ..., London 1870
• A discourse containing a loving invitation ... to all Adventurers ... for the advancement of his Majesties most hopeful Plantation in the New-found-land. 1622

literature

• Christopher English: Whitbourne, Sir Richard (1561-1635), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online 2004
• Richard Whidborne: Crosses & comforts: being the life and times of Captain Sir Richard Whitbourne 1561–1635 of Exmouth in Devonshire, St John's, 2005

Web links

• Gillian T. Cell: Whitbourne, Sir Richard , Dictionary of Canadian Biography