[Tommies] John Thompson and David's fishing post

Sun Feb 22 22:48:28 EST 2009

I've been reading the e-mails, waiting for an opportunity to make a  
comparison and this seems as good a time as any.

"Maurice Thomson was a man of great business enterprise and much  
interested in public affairs. He established a fishing station in New  
England, erected sugar works in Barbadoes and was Governor of the  
East India Company in the reign of Charles the First."

http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/business/business9.html

How colonisation provoked the transportation of offenders:

In 1620, Sir Thomas Smith (Smythe?) had been allowed to ship 20  
people to the Somers Islands (Bermuda). (Within a few decades, the  
term "being Babadosed" came to mean being kidnapped to work on  
Barbados. Long later, the term was "Shanghaied"). By the 1640s, many  
younger people on Barbados had arrived after being kidnapped. Later,  
other new inhabitants included London thieves and whores, Scottish  
and Irish soldiers captured in Cromwell's campaigns. Cromwell did  
much to encourage the transportation of people deemed undesirable,  
but not before certain trends had earlier been set by the second Earl  
of Warwick, his associates, and those who answered to them. Between  
1623-1624 the newly-organised Dorchester Company was granted  
permission by the Council of New England to fish and trade. By 1626  
the company - with some members prominent Puritans - had established  
a settlement at Salem, promoting the idea of a Bible Commonwealth.
(By 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Company was formed with a charter  
from the Crown. Some Levant Company men investing in Massachusetts  
Bay Colony included Francis Flyer, Matthew Craddock, Samuel Vassall,  
Nathan Wright, men already active in America trade. It is difficult  
not to see them co-operating with "the Rich faction". The  
Massachusetts Bay Company members were merchants, some fishing men of  
the Dorchester Company, some London merchants and some Puritan  
gentry. [In 1630, some seventeen English ships sailed for  
Massachusetts, with 1000 persons plus provisions and animal stock].)

Renewed anti-Spanish feeling after the Sandys/Smythe squabble:

Puritanism remained a strong theme in politics. In 1628-1629 were  
parliamentary confrontations with the crown over unparliamentary  
taxation, forced loans, arbitrary imprisonment, and Arminianism and  
persecution of Puritans. A political opposition grouped around the  
Earl of Warwick, Lord Saye and Sele, and Sir Nathaniel Rich and their  
colonizing ventures.
Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, pp. 148ff.

It would appear that Brenner is the first historian to strongly link  
the second Earl of Warwick with the formerly unreported extent of the  
trading engaged by Maurice Thomson and Thomson's associates.

On Feb 22, 2009, at 7:01 PM, Nancy Thomson wrote:

> Re: Fish
> There’s a recent book (available on Amazon) called Cod: A Biography  
> of the Fish That Changed the World that explains why English  
> sailors came to New England looking for codfish. According to the  
> online review: “The cod helped inspire the discovery and  
> exploration of North America. It had a profound impact upon the  
> economic development of New England and eastern Canada from the  
> earliest times.” Haven’t read the book but I heard the author on  
> the radio. As I recall, the Europeans had over-fished cod (it was a  
> VERY popular dish then) and sailed our way looking for new sources  
> of the valuable catch.
>
> Nancy
>
>
> On 2/22/09 2:57 PM, "maaisha at aol.com" <maaisha at aol.com> wrote:
>
>> Thank you very much, Dick.  I can see that the British would want  
>> an outpost for servicing their vessels.  That makes sense.  The  
>> fish don't.  Surely the British had plenty of fish, and still do.   
>> Why would codfish be sent back to England - or were they not sent  
>> back?  Was it only to feed arriving sailors?
>> Lois
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dick Hodgman <dick.hodgman at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 3:29 pm
>> Subject: Re: [Tommies] John Thompson and David's fishing post
>>
>> Lois,
>>
>> David and Amyes were in the New World to support the British  
>> fishing fleet.  Their providing provisions and services allowed  
>> the fleet to stay off North America for the entire season.  The  
>> British came to the New World for the fish before they came for  
>> religious freedom.
>>
>> --Dick
>> ============================
>> Dick Hodgman
>> dick at hodgman.org
>> http://hodgman.org/
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 12:42 PM,  <maaisha at aol.com> wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>>   I have two questions.
>>>   I noticed in John Thompson's will, that he mentions his son-in- 
>>> law, John Aldrich.  I have only two children for John Thompson  
>>> and Sarah Trevore - Mehitable Thompson Hayward (Haywood) and son,  
>>> John.  Where does John Aldrich fit in?  I must be missing a  
>>> daughter.  I am descended from both the son, John, and the  
>>> daughter, Mehitable.  Who was their sibling?
>>>   This second question must have an obvious answer than I am too  
>>> dense to see.  Why was David Thomson setting up a fishing  
>>> station, drying cod and sending them back to England?  Isn't that  
>>> like sending coal to Newcastle?  What am I missing here?
>>>    Thanks for any help.
>>> Sincerely,  Lois
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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