Sir james lancaster biography samples
James Lancaster
English privateer (–)
For the Irish-born actor, see James Lancaster (actor). For the Canadian actor, see Heath Lamberts.
Sir James Lancaster (c.
– 6 June ) was an English privateer and trader of the Elizabethan era.
Life and work
Lancaster came from Basingstoke in Hampshire.
Lancaster was brought up in Portugal as a merchant and soldier, but returned to England in He thereafter became a trusted employee of the London merchant Thomas Cordell, commanding his merchant ship ‘Edward Bonaventure’ in the fleet against the Spanish Armada in , serving under Sir Francis Drake.[1][2]
East India activities
On 10 April Lancaster started from Torbay in Devon, with George Raymond and Samuel Foxcroft, on his major voyage to the East Indies; this fleet of three ships (Penelope, Marchant Royal and Edward Bonaventure[3]) was the earliest of the English overseas Indian expeditions.
They reached Table Bay on 1 August [4]
Losing one ship off Cape Correntes on 12 September, the squadron rested and refitted at Zanzibar (February ), rounded Cape Comorin the following May, and reached the Malay Peninsula having arrived at Penang in June. Here Lancaster remained on the island until September of the same year.
After a later crossing to Ceylon, the crews insisted on returning home.
The return voyage was disastrous, with only twenty-five officers and men surviving to reach England in May Lancaster himself reached Rye on 24 May His Indian voyage, like Ralph Fitch's overland explorations and trading, was an important factor in the foundation of the East India Company. In the same year he led a privateering expedition against Pernambuco and Recife in Brazil, aimed at seizing the cargo of a storm-damaged Portuguese carrack which had put in there on its way back from India.
Unlike the East Indies voyage, this was (according to Hakluyt's account) highly professional in its conduct and very successful; after picking up a chance-met separate squadron under Captain Henry Middleton, he led an assault landing, seized the town and (with the assistance of a flotilla of Dutch traders who also threw in their lot with him) held it for several weeks and embarked the carrack's cargo along with local produce such as Brazil-wood (the source of a valuable red dye used in the woollen textile industry).
In he was given command of the East India Company's first fleet (which sailed from Torbay on 22 April,[5] ); his vessel was the Red Dragon. He was also accredited as Queen Elizabeth's special envoy to various Eastern potentates. Going by the Cape of Good Hope (1 November ) Lancaster visited the Nicobars (from 9 April ), Aceh and other parts of Sumatra (from 5 June ), and Bantam in Java.
An alliance was established with Aceh, the first English East India Company factory established at Bantam and a commercial mission dispatched to the Moluccas. Lancaster also seized a large Portuguese galleon and looted it. The return voyage from 20 February to 11 September was speedy and prosperous, and Lancaster (whose success both in trade and diplomacy had been brilliant) was rewarded with a knighthood from the newly crowned James I in October
Lancaster continued to be one of the chief directors of the East India Company until his death in June Most of the voyages of the early Stuart period both to India and in search of the Northwest Passage were undertaken under his sponsorship and direction.
In July , Lancaster Sound, the entrance to the Northwest Passage, on the north-west side of Baffin Bay (74° N.), was named by William Baffin after Sir James.
Will
His will (dated 18 April )[6] established two charitable trusts administered by the Skinners' Company. One was for the benefit of officials and poor people in Basingstoke, and was subsequently transferred by court order to Basingstoke Corporation[7] in The other was for poor divinity students at Oxford and Cambridge, to whom the Skinners' Company still provides grants today.[6]
Scurvy
At some point in his travels, Lancaster noted the efficacy of fresh fruit as a preventative for scurvy.[8]
In Lancaster performed an experimental study of the antiscorbutic effects of lemon juice.
His fleet of four ships departed Torbay in southwest England on 21 April , and scurvy began appearing in three of the ships by 1 August (4 months after sailing). By the time of arrival, 9 September, at Table Bay in southern Africa, the three ships were so devastated by scurvy that the men of Lancaster's ship, Red Dragon, had to assist the rest of the fleet into the harbor.
Joanna lancaster Abel Tasman. Another renowned seafarer, John Davis, served as the chief pilot of the expedition. Toggle the table of contents. An alliance was established with Aceh, the first English East India Company factory established at Bantam and a commercial mission dispatched to the Moluccas.Lancaster's men remained in better health than the men on the other ships because every morning he gave them three spoonfuls of bottled lemon juice that he had taken to sea. Lancaster would spend much of his time in Madagascar, where he would retrieve more lemon juice, and other citrus to treat his men.[9][10]
The Admiralty received Lancaster's report.
In – nearly years later and after countless, unnecessary deaths – the Admiralty finally mandated lemon juice for all sailors.[11][12]
References
- ^"Sir James Lancaster, / Royal Museums Greenwich". .
- ^"Sir James Lancaster Explorer, East India Company & Sea Captain Britannica".
.
- ^East India Company ().Sir james lancaster biography samples Lancaster continued to be one of the chief directors of the East India Company until his death in June Mary's Island, where they obtained some oranges and lemons; but finding the anchorage unsafe, went on to Antongil Bay, where they anchored on Christmas day But that, there were some — aldermen and merchants of London — who thought the Portuguese might be profitably, as patriotically, plundered nearer home, and who, in the summer of , fitted out three ships for this purpose and placed them under Lancaster's command. Helena and at Trinidad in the West Indies, in the vain hope 'there to find refreshing,' they steered for Porto Rico, and at the little island of Mona met a French ship, from which they obtained some bread and other provisions.
List of factory records of the late East India Company: preserved in the Record Department of the India Office, London. p.iv.
- ^Beckingham, C. F. "Lancaster, Sir James". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi/ref:odnb/ (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^Raikes, Charles, The Englishman of India, , London
- ^ ab" SIR JAMES LANCASTER FOR POOR SCHOLARS OF OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITIES".
Central Register of Charities. Charity Commission for England and Wales. Retrieved 30 September
[permanent dead link] - ^Herbert, William ().James lancaster tarpon springs While I greatly enjoyed the subject matter, the style in which the book was written was quite difficult to appreciate. Central Register of Charities. Medical History. When in September Lancaster put to sea to cruise in the straits of Malacca in quest of passing Portuguese, the king willingly undertook to prevent any warning being sent from Acheen.
The History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London. London: self-published. pp.–
- ^Lim, Teckwyn (). "'Sixteen Naked Indians': First Contact between the British and the Orang Asli". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 94 (2): 27– doi/ras ISSN S2CID
- ^Lind, James ().
"Treatise of the Scurvy".
Actor james lancaster On February 20, , the expedition set sail for the return journey and arrived in London on September Further reading [ edit ]. After a later crossing to Ceylon , the crews insisted on returning home. There, Lancaster encountered three Dutch flutes and struck a deal with their captains for the future division of the loot.In Lloyd, Christopher (ed.). The Health of Seamen:Selections from the Works of Dr. James Lind, Sir Gilbert Blance and Dr. Thomas Trotter. London: Navy Records Society. OCLC
- ^Sharpe, Brandon (23 April ). "Selden Map Atlas". Archived from the original on 30 December Retrieved 28 April
- ^Tickner, F.J.
& V.C. Medvei (). "Scurvy and the health of European crews in the Indian Ocean in the seventeenth century". Medical History. 2 (1): 36– doi/s PMC PMID
- ^Baron, Jeremy Hugh ().
James lancaster portsmouth va: Another renowned seafarer, John Davis, served as the chief pilot of the expedition. The Admiralty received Lancaster's report. In the same year he led a privateering expedition against Pernambuco and Recife in Brazil , aimed at seizing the cargo of a storm-damaged Portuguese carrack which had put in there on its way back from India. A free and lucrative trade was opened, as the result of which both ships were fully laden with pepper by the middle of February; and after establishing a factory at Bantam, and sending some of the merchants to establish another at the Moluccas, Lancaster, with the two ships, sailed on 20 Feb.
"Sailors' scurvy before and after James Lind–a reassessment"(PDF). Nutrition Reviews. 67 (6): – doi/jx. PMID Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 April
Further reading
- Foster Rhea Dulles, Eastward Ho! The First English Adventurers to the Orient: Richard Chancellor, Anthony Jenkinson, James Lancaster, William Adams, Sir Thomas Roe (John Lane, The Bodley Head, )