[21] 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.
[22] 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.
[23] A.C.R., 75, August, 15, 1664.
[24] 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.
[25] 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.
[26] A. C. R., 309, June 25, September 4, 1663. Upon the latter date it appears that only £1300 of his subscription was paid.
[27] Clarendon, History of the Reign of Charles II, p. 198.
[28] The Several Declarations of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England trading into Africa, January 12, 1662 (O. S.).
[29] Ibid.
[30] A. C. R., 309, June 25, August 25, 1663.