The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919

123

Admiralty Papers, Navy Board, In-Letters, 6, loose leaf order of the factors of the Royal Adventurers on the Gambia River, July 19, 1661. With this order there is a certificate dated January 3, 1661/2, to the effect that thirty-eight of the crew of the "Amity" had died on the way to Guinea and during the time they were on the Gambia River.

124

A. C. R., 1221, October 20, 1662.

125

It is impossible to determine the exact amount which was invested in goods, etc.

126

A. C. R., 1221, June 20, 1661.

127

Ibid., April 30, 1662.

128

Ibid., 309, September 26, 1662

129

A. C. R., 309, September 26, October 20, 1662. Only £560 of the king's subscription of £800 was paid, according to the list found under the first of the above dates. This may be a slight error, as warrants were issued for the payment of £580 at various times in 1661 and 1662. C.S.P., Treas. Bks. (Calendar of State Papers, Treasury Books), 1660-1667, pp. 312, 314, 383. This does not include a warrant for £300, which was probably used in the first expedition under Captain Holmes, but which for some reason is omitted in the company's books. C. S. P., Treas. Bks., 1660-1667, p. 107.

130

A. C. R., 309, October 20, 1662, January 15, 1663. Afterward £3,200 was added to this, making £20,800 in all in the second subscription. A. C. R., 309, August 25, 1663.

131

Carr, Select Charters of Trading Companies, pp. 178-181.

132

There were also provisions similar to those contained in the first charter for the government of the company's "plantations" (factories) in Africa. The clause allowing the king to subscribe one-sixteenth of the stock was omitted, but he could become a shareholder at any time.

133

The charter had provided that the executive committee should be composed of seven men if twenty-four assistants were elected and thirteen if thirty-six were chosen. A.C.R., 75: 29, 31, 41, 44, 49, 51, 68, 72, 93.

134

P.C.R. (Register of the Privy Council), Charles II, 2: 451.

135

Ibid., 2: 502.

136

Egerton MSS., 2538, f. 109, C. C. to Secretary Nicholas, August 11, 1662. Folio 110 contains a note without date or signature saying that the matter was referred to the Lord High Treasurer and others.

137

The earl of Clarendon declares in his History of Charles II that, upon the return of the ships from the first expedition, the company "compounded" with Sir Nicholas Crispe for his "propriety" in the fort at Kormentine. This is untrue, since it has just been shown that it was not until the middle of 1662 that he agreed to transfer his property to the Royal Adventurers and that it was afterward that Crispe endeavored to get the king's approval to grant him compensation. Clarendon may have remembered that the king was favorable to the proposition and therefore assumed that such a contract had been made. Hyde, Edward, First Earl of Clarendon. The History of the Reign of King Charles the Second, from the Restoration to the end of the year 1667 (edited by J. Shebbeare), p. 197.

138

This charge was put forward in a pamphlet, probably published in 1709, called Sir John Crispe's Case in Relation to the Forts in Africa. In this pamphlet the assertion is made that the Privy Council had a full hearing of the matter on July 29, 1662, and ordered the Royal Adventurers to pay Crispe £20,000 by an export duty of 2½ per cent on goods sent to Africa. An examination of the Privy Council Register shows no order of that kind on that date or at any subsequent time.

139

A.C.R., 75, August, 15, 1664.

140

In January, 1663, the Royal Adventurers made an agreement with several members of Crispe's company providing for the transfer to England of their merchandise and personal effects which were still on the coast of Africa. Whether this second contract contained anything about compensation for the forts it is impossible to say, since this agreement also has not been preserved. Admiralty High Court, Examinations 134. Answers of Edward M. Mitchell and Ellis Leighton, May 10, 20, 1664.

141

That Sir Nicholas Crispe felt the losses he had incurred in Guinea appears from his will of 1666, in which he directed the following inscription to be erected to his memory: "first discovered and settled the Trade of Gold in Africa and built there the Castle of Cormentine," and thus "lost out of purse" more than £100,000. Crisp, Frederick A., Family of Crispe, I, 32.

142

A. C. R., 309, June 25, September 4, 1663. Upon the latter date it appears that only £1300 of his subscription was paid.

143

Clarendon, History of the Reign of Charles II, p. 198.

144

The Several Declarations of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England trading into Africa, January 12, 1662 (O. S.).

145

Ibid.

146

A. C. R., 309, June 25, August 25, 1663.

147

Ibid., 309, August 25, 1663.