Papers of the Winthrop Family, Volume 1
1628-07-14
— I am forced for the more convenient passage of my letters in a merchants paquet to be more breife then otherwise I should, but I hope hereby they will come to your hands safe and with more speed; which, if they were by them selves, would lye long before they could come to you. You shall hereby understand, that we arrived safely (God be thanked for it) at this port the 7 of this month, being but 20 daies since we left sight of the lands end of England and 26 since our departure out of the Downes.3 We had (I thanke God) both health and faire weather all the way, and are now arrived in a very plesant and temperate Countrie. We spake not with any ships since we lost sight of England save only one English man of Warr upon the coast of Spaine: once we mette 25 saile, but they sprung their 403luffe and would not speake with us. This place affordeth little newes, at this tyme; from Genoa there is newes that there is free trade granted as is at this towne, and from Marseiles that the Duke de Guise is come to sea with 4 gallioones and 12 sailes of gallies, it is supposed to meete with Sir Chillam Digby,4 who hath taken 3 or 4 frenchmen, hath beene at Algiers, and redeemed some 20 or 30 Christian slaves, hath mand his prizes, and is gone againe towards the bottom. The newes of this towne is only of some 200 turkes that the Dukes Gallies have taken and are now heere making ready to set forth againe. Heere is an order from the Duke that no prizes shalbe brought into this port. I find this place very chargeable, and could wish I had brought no English mony with me, for it is foure shillings in the pound losse. Thus with my duty remembred to your selfe, my mother and grandmother, with my love to my brothers and sister, my uncle Gostlin and aunt, and the rest of our freinds, desiring your praiers and blessing, I commend you to Gods protection and rest Your obedient Sonne
It wilbe yet a month or 5 weeke before we goe from hence; if you write to me after the receipt hereof I pray let it be to Constantinople and directed to Captaine Maplesden,5 or Mr. John Freeman,6 marchant, or some other way as you thinke it may come safe to my hands as you shall have occasion.
I pray remember my service to uncle Tindall and aunt when you see them, and to Captaine Best.
Indorsed by the father: “This Lettre came to London about the 12 of Aug.”
L. and L.
, I. 263–265; 5
Collections
, VIII. 9–10. The original is lost.
Leghorn was normally the first port for a ship in the Levant trade. After remaining there twenty days, the Sampson (1625) was to proceed to Zante, with three days’ stay, to Smyrna, with five days, and thence to Constantinople, where thirty days were allowed for discharging and loading freight. Mordecai Epstein, Early History of the Levant Company (London, 1908), 138–139.
On June 9 or 10 the younger Winthrop sailed from the Downs in the London of London, a ship of four hundred tons. The voyage appears to have been a mercantile adventure, perhaps under the Levant Company’s license. A charter had been given to that Company in December, 1605, and ships and freight were subject to regulations framed to maintain a monopoly. Epstein, 135. In an undated note, calendared as of May, 1628, four ships are named as bound for the Straits: the Elizabeth and Margaret, in which Lady Wyche, wife of the British Ambassador at Constantinople, took passage; the London, the Paragon, and the Hector. Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1628–1629, 144. Winthrop met the Hector at Zante in January, 1629.
L. and L.
, I. 274. All four vessels were at Leghorn in August, but thence the Elizabeth and Margaret sailed for Constantinople and the other ships for Zante and Venice. Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1628–1629, 181, 229, 346.
Letters of marque had been issued to Sir Keneln Digby in December, 1627, and for a year he remained in the Mediterranean, his most striking deed being the defeat of French and Venetian ships at Scanderoon, in June, 1628. See W. C. Ford, “A Seventeenth Century Letter of Marque,” in M. H. S., Proceedings
, LIX. 3–25 (1925).
Edward Maplesden, part owner and master of the London of London. In June, 1630, he was exempted by the Venetian Senate from paying the customary export duty on Zante currants “because of the services rendered by him to the Mart and the public customs by his eight voyages to Cyprus.” Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1629–1632, 346.
John Freeman was appointed consul at Smyrna February 22, 1633, on the King’s nomination to the Company. Epstein, op. cit., 94, 96.