C16th Devonshire MERCHANTs
& their connections
Local Devon Trade
Henry Pomeroy in Bristol, AML found him, Henry Pomerey in 1554, Gent. of Bristol, late of Ottery St Mary & named in pardon roll of I Mary. (Powley) But there were more-
Port of Bristol Ledger - Thomas Kelke & Henry Pomerey, collectors of Customs & Subsidies.
Henry was from Ottery St Mary in East Devon was probably a wool merchant who would have shipped out of Axmouth or possibly Sidmouth.
According to Historic England, 'Axmouth was ranked as a major port by the mid-14th century and accounted for 15% of the country’s shipping trade'. The remains of a late medieval fishing boat can be seen at low tide in the River Axe, just south-west of the village
Henry was from Ottery St Mary in East Devon was probably a wool merchant who would have shipped out of Axmouth or possibly Sidmouth.
According to Historic England, 'Axmouth was ranked as a major port by the mid-14th century and accounted for 15% of the country’s shipping trade'. The remains of a late medieval fishing boat can be seen at low tide in the River Axe, just south-west of the village
The Devon roads were notoriously bad, making travel overland using pack mules long , perilous & difficult . Thus despite the many perils of sailing around Lands End & the Lizard it was was safer and quicker to go by sea.
With ships of 50 tons or less dominating the coastal trade, it was large ships , those of more than 100 tons, that were more prevalent in overseas activity –
Domesday records make reference to 11 salthouses or to 11 saltworkers. at Seaton. These were a continuation of an industry from Saxon times. Although there is no documentary references to saltmaking in the late medieval period , a sudden a cessation after 6 centuries seems unlikely. The area of saltmarsh which followed silting of the estuary would have provided new locations for saltworking.
In those early days about a quarter of overseas voyages by English ships were undertaken by vessels of 100 tons and over. It was a similar case for foreign ships trading with England. After about 1580 the merchant fleet had increased in size and tonnage & so did the places with which English vessels traded. Large Tudor merchant vessels travelled to Russia, North Africa, the Azores and, by the last decades of the 16th and early 17th centuries, began traversing the Atlantic with increasing frequency and rounded the southern tip of Africa into the Indian Ocean. The goods they brought back became increasingly exotic goods: silk, sugar, pepper, currants, and crops from the Americas such as the potato and maize. The first samples of Tobacco ,leaves and seeds to be used as snuff were sent to the French king in to Francis II and his mother Catherine of Medici . apparently the king's recurring headaches were reportedly "marvellously cured" In 1563 it was reported that chewing or smoking a tobacco leaf "has a wonderful power of producing a kind of peaceful drunkenness.
more about the Artur family here
A century of so later a Mary Arthur married into the Wynter’s of Dyrham Park, which ultimately caused the Artur family to lose their fortune when, according to legend, a Wynter gambled it away at the gaming tables. William Wynter of Clapton-in-Gordano, Somerset son of John married Mary Artur, heiress of Artur their son Edward Wynter buried in the little church at Clapton in Gordano where there is an elaborate tomb to Wynter Family
Her sister Margaret Wynter married Thomas Wykes.
AML discovered there is physical evidence that Richard in Clapton in Gordeno married Anne Wykes widow Arthur & Richard of Totnes husband of Elenor Coker was the same man
C 1/1254/44 & C 1/1254/53 - two documents, written two years apart; written by the same hand.
… In one, in 1547 ,Richard Pomeroy details the Little Totnes issue, in which he made a 1536 lease agreement & mentions his wife Elinor & son Harry /Henry.
...the other in 1549 Richard Pomeroy discusses the 1/3rd share of each of the properties which came to him in Clapton in Gordano, and Weston in Somersetshire, and other lands in Somerset , of which he had as Freeholder, as the result of his marriage to Anne, widow of Thomas Arthur on 8 May 1545.
Lands held in dower for Anne Wykes Artur Pomeroy were held in Freehold by Richard Pomeroy, and Anne, by rights of his marriage to her.
Clapton Court in Clapton in Gordano in North Somerset was the home to the Arthur family for four centuries.
The richest shipowners in Bristol, & owners of the carvel 'the Matthew', were the merchant family the Shipman , who were owners or part-owner of five great ships by 1513.
Visitations gives us the 1st wife of Thomas Artur Esq of Clapton in Gordano as dau of John Shipman of Bristol ;
His second wife in about 1539 was Anne Wykes a young daughter of Willam Wykes of Nynehead a very wealth family of wool merchants.
Anne gave Thomas three sons & when Sir Thomas Artur died in 1543 she was expecting their fourth child, a posthumous daughter she named Anne ( Artur )
In 1544 Richard Pomeroy of Totnes the widower of Eleanor Coker, man of business & probably a merchant, who had been overseer of her mother's Will married the widowed Anne . Richard & Anne Pomeroy had other children. She died in Dymock in Gloucesteshire in 1574
Richard Pomeroy of Totnes was a comrade at arms with Sir Thomas Artur , having served together on campaign fighting the French & may have become his 'Man of Business"
Richard Pomeroy was born about 1492, son of Thomas Pomeroy 3rd son of SIr Henry by his wife Alice Ralegh . Thomas married Agnes Kelloway, They were at Bowden near Totnes and Richard had 1st married Eleanor Coker. He became a man of wealth & influence & may have became the man of business for Sir Thomas Artur ; certainly he was overseer to the 1552 Will of Anne Wyke's mother - later Richard Pomeroy's mother in law .
After Richard death in about 1570 Anne went to live with her granddaughter Margaret Porter in Dymock where she was buried in 1574
Anne Pawmery bur. 29 Jan 1574 Burials. Vol. 3 (Burial) Collection: Gloucestershire: Dymock - Parish Registers, 1538-1790
AJP has found other Pawmery & Pomere and assorted spelling s in the border settlements around Shrewsbury in Shropshire - about 50 miles from Dymock
what their connection might be, if any, is a complete unknown as of the end of 2021
Note that the river Severn was/is navigable to Shrewsbury which is about 90 miles inland of the Bristol Channel.
SHIPS & Merchant SHIPPING
1572 George Pomeroy sailed the 'Moryan' of London from unknown to unknown destinations .
1574 George Pomeroy sailed the 'John' from Beaulieu to London.
Beaulieu is on the southeastern edge of The New Forest lying on the south coast of England not far from Southampton . The village is on the waters of the river Beaulieu where ships were built, salt was extracted & oysters were harvested ; the river flows into the solent close to Southampton.
There were powerful local influences from the Cistercian monastery of Beaulieu Abbey for at least 300 years one of the most powerful monasteries in the country; where they developed farming and wool production techniques, produced items that were highly coveted by merchants from all over Europe & where the monks were skilled herbalists with medicinal gardens within the Abbey’s grounds. It flourished until 1538 when Henry VIII invoked the Dissolution of the Monasteries & threw all the monks out, selling the properties to private hands.
1571 Ralph Pomerye a merchant shipping out of Elmore on the Severn in his ship the 'Julyan' for Carmarthan in South Wales
He sailed his ship down river from Elmore on the east side of river Severn, across the Bristol Channel to Carmarthan on the River Towy , some 8 miles upriver from its estuary in Carmarthen Bay, just west of the Gower Peninsula in Wales.
Elmore lies close to Minsterworth & is seaward of Gloucester on the river Severn ; looking at it n there is no visual evidence of riverside wharfs - salmon fishing flourished there and possible elvers (baby eels) for which the upper reaches of Severn was famous.
Elmore Court is an old house , with glorious stained glass windows, which, for almost 800 years , was the seat of the powerful Guise family . First granted by John of Burgh, who was part of the court of Henry III with the rent set at "One clove of Gillyflower" annually .
1576 John Pomery sailed his ship the 'Harry' from Bristol to Bideford then on to nearby Barnstaple before turning around and sailing back to Bristol on the following day .
John Pomeroy may have been a resident in Barnstaple BUT could be a Dartmouth or a Totnes man making voyages between Dartmouth & Barnstaple; probably on their way to Cork in Ireland.
Port Books Barnstaple 41 years later & another
John Pomery - master of the 12 ton ' Samuel ' registered at Northam - which is close to the confluence of the rivers Torridge & Taw to the seaward of Barnstaple near Appledore & Bideford, both boat building communities
He sailed on 17th June 1617 departing Barnstaple for Milford ( Haven) in Wales with a cargo for merchant William Whellin carrying wool, bacon, raw cloth & white leather
The following day 18th July 1617 he made a return trip departing Milford for Barnstaple with a cargo for merchant Richard Walter of wool, butter & wheat.
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overseas shipping trade here
http://medievalandtudorships.org.
Plymouth In 1497 John Cabot found the abundant stocks of fish off Newfoundland and soon Fishermen from Plymouth were crossing the Atlantic to fish off the coast of Newfoundland. They set out in the spring in their small fishing boats & returned in the autumn..
First Expedition to Roanoke in 1585 led by Sir Walter Raleigh, Philip Amadas, William Grenville, John Wood, Richard Hakluyt, Henry Greene, William Sanderson, Josias Calmady, John Dee, Thomas Harriot, John Sparke. Ultimately the project was a failure and Roanoke is one of the enduring mysteries of early colonisation.
Many other goods were imported into Plymouth, wine, fruit, sugar and paper was imported from France and Spain but Plymouth was largely dependent on the fish trade .
In the early 16th century the town probably had a population of about 3,500. By the time of the Spanish Armada (1588) the population had risen to about 5,000.
Leonard Pomeroy a Merchant Adventurer, & Mayor-of-Plymouth was a successful Plymouth Merchant as were Abraham Colmer, Nicolas Sherwill - and as Plymouth merchants they instigated & certainly contributed to the founding of the colony in Maine in the New World in around 1620
Dartmouth merchants included John Hauley, with three other men, Benedict Botteshale, William Clerk and Thomas Assheidene, who also acted as collectors of the poll tax.
Clerk and Assheidene both served as mayors of Dartmouth and, like Hauley and Botteshale, were wealthy merchants.
Hauley, Assheidene and Botteshale were also major shipowners and on at least one occasion combined forces to fight the King's enemies at sea.
Clerk and Assheidene lived in Clifton and Hauley apparently resided in Hardness and although Botteshale's name does not appear on the list of taxpayers even though he owned property in Dartmouth, possibly because his residence was in Southtown or Norton, both of which were taxed separately from Clifton and Hardness.
A World to Discover
During Drakes circumnavigation with its fleet of five ship John Wynter was placed in charge of the "Elizabeth" and there was also the "Marygold", possibly captained by his younger brother, Thomas.
This was a dangerous time. The charts were unreliable and they had to be guided by their own soundings. But complete the journey they did and on September 6th 1578, Francis Drake sailed his little ship into the Pacific Ocean.
Sadly, this success was short-lived. The day after their arrival there was a great storm and the fleet was driven southwards. It raged for two weeks, during which time the "Marygold" foundered and was lost. The other two vessels took shelter for a while but another storm blew up and forced the two ships apart.
Captain Wynter managed to get to the Straits and he brought the "Elizabeth" back to England, believing that the "Golden Hinde" had been lost. More about him here
