The lands of silence

by Sir Clements R. Markham

In 1615 Sir Dudley Digges published a very able reply to an attack on the East India Company, in which he gave an interesting account of their ships, and of the progress of their trade. From that time he was intimately connected with the projects of Sir Thomas Smith, who was a relation of his wife. Sir Dudley was sent on an embassy to Russia in 1618 and an account of this voyage to Archangel is preserved in manuscript at Oxford. It gives, among other things, an account of the Samoyeds, of the vegetation round Archangel, and of the Russian boats and sailing vessels. Sir Dudley was also employed in a negotiation at the Hague.

Sir Dudley was returned to Parliament in 1621 and again in 1626 for the County of Kent. He was a liberal politician and was one of the chief instigators of the charges against the Duke of Buckingham, for which he was committed to the Tower by Charles I. When released he continued to uphold the rights of the people, and in 1628 boldly protested against the King’s command to the Speaker that no member should speak against the government. In April 1636 he was made Master of the Rolls. He died on March 18th, 1639, at the age of 56, and was buried in Chilham church; one “whose death the wisest men reckon among the public calamities of these times.” He was a learned lawyer, an able diplomatist and a great promoter of Arctic discovery.

Alderman Sir Francis Jones was another active colleague of Sir Thomas Smith in the encouragement of maritime enterprise. He was of a Shropshire family, citizen and haberdasher of London, Alderman of Aldgate Ward and Lord Mayor. He was also one of the farmers of Customs and was knighted on March 12th, 1617. Sir Francis resided at Welford, where he died in 1622.

The father of Sir John Wolstenholme, the patron of Baffin, also named John, was a native of Derbyshire. He came to London and, after making a fortune, established himself at Stanmore Magna near Harrow. His son was born in 1562, and became an active promoter of voyages for the discovery of a passage to Cathay. He was knighted at Whitehall, built the church at Stanmore at his sole expense, and dying at the age of 77 in November 1639 was buried at Stanmore, where there is a handsome monument to his memory.

Alderman William Cockayne was Governor of the Eastland Company and the London planters in Ulster, and it was under his direction that the City of Londonderry was founded. He became Lord Mayor and was knighted in 1616. He was also a Director of the East India Company, and a warm supporter of Arctic voyages.

Sir James Lancaster was a native of Basingstoke. He commanded the first English voyage to the East Indies, and also the first voyage of the East India Company. After his return in 1603 he was knighted, and served as a Director of the East India Company. Sir James was wealthy and lived in something more than comfort at his house in St Mary Axe, actively promoting voyages of discovery. He died in June 1618, and left a large sum to found a school at Basingstoke[58].

Richard Bell was another London merchant who embarked in various enterprises having discovery as their object. He was a member of the East India Company, also of the North-west Passage Company, and in 1618 he is mentioned as having fitted out two ships for the discovery of some island in the West Indies. He died before 1622. One of the branches of Gilbert Sound was named Bell’s river by Hall.

Quite as important to posterity as the liberality and patriotism of the merchant adventurers were the labours of Richard Hakluyt. Without his indefatigable diligence much valuable help would have been lost to the explorers and many precious documents would have been lost to us.

Born of a good Herefordshire family in 1553, we first hear of Hakluyt at Westminster School, “that fruitful nursery,” as he called it. His thoughts were early turned to geographical studies. It was his hap, he tells us, to visit a cousin and namesake, who was a gentleman of the Middle Temple, on whose table he found some books on cosmography and a map of the world. The curiosity and interest of the boy were aroused. His cousin began by giving explanatory answers to his eager questions, giving him a regular lecture on the divisions of the earth, and ending with a disquisition on the commodities and requirements of each country. From the map he took him to the Bible and made him read the 23rd and 24th verses of the 107th Psalm, “They that go down to the sea in ships and occupy their business in great waters.”

This geographical discourse made so deep an impression on the boy that he never forgot it. He was then told, he says, “things that were of high and rare delight to his young nature.” He made a resolution from which he never swerved, that he would continue to study that subject of geography, the doors of which had been so happily opened to him.