Debts hopeful and desperate : $b Financing the Plymouth ColonyMcIntyre, Ruth A.
History
Debts hopeful and desperate : $b Financing the Plymouth Colony
McIntyre, Ruth A.
Massachusetts -- History -- New Plymouth, 1620-1691
[33] Bradford, “Letter Book,” 34; Goldsmiths’ Company, London,
Apprentice Book, I, 1578–1645, 151; Wardens’ Accounts and Court
Minutes, vol. P, pt. 1 (1611–17), 76, 198; pt. 2 (1617–24), 189 and
_passim_, 76, 77, 79; vol. Q, pt. 1 (1624–29), 79; vol. R, pt. 2
(1631–34), 193, 195, 199, 200, 223, 224, 225; vol. T (1637–39), 185,
186, 189; vol. V (1639–42), 58, 62; vol. unlettered [W] (1642–45),
228, 237. Presumably because he was living in Clapham, James Sherley
is not listed among those who paid poll money to the Commissioners. A
duty of the prime warden, with his second and third wardens, was to
have custody of the plate belonging to the City of London, _ibid._,
238. In 1652 Sherley was appointed with other wardens to prepare an
answer to a petition by the freemen of the Company to a committee of
Parliament concerning their rights in choosing the wardens, Sir Walter
S. Prideaux, _Memorials of the Goldsmiths’ Company_ ... (London, 1896),
II, 24.
Of the several James Sherleys who are contemporaries, I have concluded
that the James Sherley, third son of Robert Sherley, originally of
Wistonston, was the one involved with the Plymouth venture. The other
James Sherleys in this family are (1) the eldest son of John Sherley
of London, and (2) the elder son of James Sherley, son of Robert.
See _Visitation of London, 1633–35_, II, 235–236. It is difficult to
determine whether the James Sherley, merchant, who owned houses in
London in 1637 is the same, “Returns of Divided Houses in the City of
London, 1637,” 208. The one who appeared with Robert Sherley to turn
over property to Robert’s daughter, Sara, in 1632 is our man, P.R.O.,
C. 54/2950; see also _Registers of St. Vedast, Foster Lane_ (Harl.
Soc., 1902) 35, for birth of Sara in 1611.
“Foynes” or foins were originally fur of the weasel family, or more
generally, furs.
[34] On Sherley’s addresses, Marsden, _Amer. Hist. Rev._, VIII, 301;
Plooij, _Pilgrim Fathers from a Dutch Point of View_, 100. Plooij says
that London Bridge was his business address and Crooked Lane his “town
house.” I have been unable to verify it. Sir Ambrose Heal, _The London
Goldsmiths, 1200–1800_ (Cambridge, 1935), 242; Bradford, _Of Plymouth
Plantation_, ed. Morison, 287; Acts of Administration, 1657 (Somerset
House, London), fol. 242. Sherley’s public appointments, _A.O.I._,
I, 730, and II, 14, 310, 479, 676, 1082, 975; also William A. Shaw,
_History of the English Church during the Civil Wars and under the
Commonwealth_ (London, 1900), II, 434.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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