EARLY ENGLISH EXPLORERS
OF
BRISTOL ENGLAND
First a brief bit about
Bristol England, situated in southern England, maybe was known as
Bryogstow. It was a populated place by the year 1000 and twenty
years later was known to be a trading center with it's own mint to
produce silver coin bearing the name. When under Norman rule it had
the strongest and well fortified castle in southern England.
The 11th century
saw Bristol as a port on the rivers Avon and Frome. In 1373 Bristol
became a county and was a shipbuilding and manufacturing center. The
15th century Bristol seamen launched many exploration
voyages, leading to early English explorers in the days of Queen
Elizabeth.
1491 the first Bristol
explorers tried to discover the new world and for seven years sent
from two to four ships each year on these voyages, joined by Spain
an Portugal. . John Cabot , undertook his great task in 1497 from
Bristol.
Cabot , born in Venice,
emigrated to Bristol, married and had three sons, on being
Sabastian, who sailed the Mathew to Newfoundland and was responsible
for discoveries of regions, dominions, islands and places unknown.
His ships visited Russia, the first English ships to do so. 1501
Robert Thorne of Bristol made voyages and discoveries in “ new
found lands”. Trade went well from Bristol to Spain and the
Mediterranean .
A story of John Rawlings of
Bristol, captured by pirates, sold as slave in Algeria, where he an
others of his crew were sold and put as crew aboard a captured ship
of Bristol, the “Exchange”, and at sea in a terrible fight threw
their captors overboard and returned the ship back to Bristol.
People of other crafts
began to engage in the profitable shipping and this led to a petition
from the merchants and King Edward IV granted “ Merchant Ventures
of Bristol” that admission was by apprenticeship only to a society
of merchants. Many expeditions to discover western lands fitted up
at Bristol.
Trade rivalry between
Britain and Spain caused the Bristol men to stand up the the
Spaniards, foot to foot, at the expedition of Cadiz in 1596, where
John Hopkins of the Merchant Ventures of Bristol became known as a
hero and won high renown and gratitude for the victory and defeat of
the Great Spanish Armada.
Source: Wilmington Delaware
News Journal , Monday November 17, 1930
The Bristol Development
Board
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