The Proposals of the Merchants: Noell and Povey.
Between the colonial and commercial activities of the later years of
the Interregnum and the corresponding activities during the early years
of the Restoration no hard and fast line can be drawn. The policy of
control adopted by Charles II can be traced to the agitation of men,
chiefly merchants of London and others familiar with the colonies, who
since 1655 had become impressed with the possibilities of the New World
as a field for profitable ventures in trade and commerce, and desired,
whether under a republic or a monarchy, the cooeperation and aid of the
government. Among the leaders of this movement were Martin Noell and
Thomas Povey.
Martin Noell was probably the most conspicuous London merchant of his
time. Of his early life nothing seems to be known. He first appears as
a merchant in 1650 trading with Nevis and Montserrat, and in the next
few years he extended his operations to New England, Virginia, the other
West India islands, and the Mediterranean. His ships trafficked in a
great variety of commodities--iron, hemp, pitch, tar, flax, potashes,
cables, fish, cocoa, tobacco, etc., and he became a power in London,
his place of business in Old Jewry being the resort of merchants,
ship captains, and persons desiring to cooeperate in his ventures.
He was an alderman as early as 1651, was placed a little later on the
commission for securing the peace of the city, and held other offices
by appointment of the city or of the Commonwealth. He was also
a member of the East India Company and influential in its councils.
In addition to his mercantile interests he became a farmer, first of
the inland and foreign post-office,--one writer speaking of him as
"the postmaster,"--and later, on a large scale, of customs and excise.
At one time or another he held the farm of the customs in general and
of the excise of salt, linen, silk mercery, and wines in particular. In
these capacities he acted as a banker of the government, paying salaries
and expenses of official appointees, advancing loans, and issuing bills
of exchange and letters of credit. His vessels carried letters of marque
during the Dutch war and the war with Spain, and he himself traded in
prizes and became one of the commissioners of prize goods. The Jamaican
expeditions of 1654 and afterward gave him an opportunity to become a
contractor and he organized a committee in London for the purpose of
financiering the expedition, himself advancing L16,000, and in company
with Capts. Alderne, Watts, and others contracted for the supplies of
the ships and soldiers, furnishing utensils, clothing, bedding, and
provisions for this and other expeditions, notably that to Flanders.
He was Gen. Venables' personal agent in London and agent for the army
in general in Jamaica. He also became a contractor for transporting
vagrants, prisoners, and others to various American plantations. These
accumulating ventures increased his interest in the colonies, and after
the capture of Jamaica in 1655 he obtained a grant of 20,000 acres in
that island, from which he created several plantations. In his new
capacity as planter he was constantly engaged in shipping servants,
supplies, and horses. The firm of Martin Noell & Company became
exceedingly prosperous, and Noell himself one of the mainstays of the
government. He became a member of the Trade Committee in 1655, of the
committee for Jamaica in 1656, and was frequently called in by the
Council of State to offer advice or to give information. He was on terms
of intimacy with Cromwell, and because of the Protector's friendship
for him and confidence in his judgment, his recommendations for office,
both in England and the colonies had great weight. Povey speaks of the
"extraordinary favor allowed him (Noell) by his Highness." He had a
brother, Thomas Noell, who was prominent in Barbadoes and Surinam and
in charge of his interests there. He was also represented in other
islands by agents and factors, of whom Edward Bradbourne was the most
conspicuous, while Major Richard Povey in Jamaica, and William Povey
in Barbadoes, brothers of Thomas Povey, had for a time charge of his
plantations in those islands. Noell indirectly played no small part in
politics, particularly of Barbadoes, where Governor Searle held office
largely through his influence. Besides his Jamaica holdings he had
estates at Wexford in Ireland, and in April, 1658, wrote to Henry
Cromwell that he had "transplanted much of his interest and affairs
and relations" to that country, seeming to indicate thereby that his
colonial ventures were not prospering satisfactorily. Noell was a
politic man, shrewd and diplomatic, asserting his loyalty to the house
of Cromwell, yet becoming a trusty subject of King Charles, from whom
he afterward received knighthood.[1]
Thomas Povey was born probably about 1615, son of Justinian Povey,
auditor of the exchequer and one of the commissioners of the Caribbee
Islands in 1637. He was one of a large family of children, nine at
least, Justinian, John, Francis, William, Richard, Thomas, Mrs.
Blathwayt (afterward Mrs. Thomas Vivian), Mrs. Barrow, and Sarah Povey,
and he spent his early years at the family home in Hounslow. In 1633 he
entered Gray's Inn and in 1647 became a member of the Long Parliament.
"Purged" with the other Presbyterian members in 1648, he did not return
to Parliament until the restoration of those members in 1659. He was
evidently inclined at first to go into law and politics, but for reasons
unnamed, possibly the slenderness of his fortune, which he says was
hardly sufficient to support him, he turned, about 1654, to trade,
and was thus brought into close relations with Martin Noell. Of his
activities until 1657 we hear very little, though it is evident that
from 1654 to 1657 he lived in Gray's Inn, engaging in many trading
ventures in the West Indies and elsewhere, was on terms of intimacy
with Noell and frequently at his house, and showed himself fertile of
suggestions, as always, regarding the improvement of trade and the
care and supply of men, provisions, and intelligence. In 1657 he lost
by death his brothers John and Francis, and his mother, who died at
Hounslow. As two of his brothers had gone to the West Indies with the
expedition of 1654 and the remainer of the family was scattered, he
decided to marry, and settled down in a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields
next the Earl of Northampton, with a widow without children, but
possessed "of a fortune capable of giving a reasonable assistance to
mine." In October of that year, possibly through Noell's influence, he
became a member of the committee for America, and from that time was
a conspicuous leader among those interested in plantation affairs.
As chairman and secretary of the committee, he took a prominent part
in all correspondence, and was familiar with the chief men in all the
colonies. He exchanged letters with Searle, of Barbadoes, D'Oyley,
of Jamaica, Temple, of Nova Scotia, Digges, at one time governor of
Virginia, Russell, of Nevis, Major Byam, of Surinam, Col. Osborn, of
Montserrat, General Brayne, in command of one of the expeditions to
Jamaica, and particularly with Lord Willoughby of Parham, with whom he
stood on terms of intimate friendship and over whose policy he exercised
considerable control. He was proposed at this time as agent in London
for Virginia, but the suggestion does not appear to have been acted on.
His brother Richard was commissary of musters and major of militia in
Jamaica, and his brother William, the black sheep of the family, who
had married a wife far too good for him, as Povey once wrote her, was
provost marshal in Barbadoes and in charge of Noell's interests there,
bringing that merchant nothing but "discontent and damage," and causing
Thomas Povey a great deal of trouble and expense. The colonial
appointments of these brothers were obtained entirely through the
influence of Noell and Povey in England. The disordered and uncertain
political situation in England in 1659 and the unsettled state of
affairs in both Jamaica and Barbadoes at the same time cost Povey great
anxiety and a part of his own and his wife's fortune, and he echoed
the complaint, widespread at the time, of the decay of trade and the
insecurity of all commercial ventures. We may not doubt that Povey,
as well as Noell, was ready to welcome the return of the King.[2]
Though Noell and Povey were intimate friends and had been engaged in
common trading enterprises for a number of years, we have no definite
knowledge of their earlier undertakings, beyond the fact that with Capt.
Watts and Capt. Aldherne, whom Povey met by accident at Noell's house,
they were particularly concerned in developing the Barbadoes and Jamaica
trade. In the years 1657 and 1658, when Noell was "swol'n into a much
greater person by being a farmer of the customs and excise," we meet
with two enterprises, one for a West India Company, promoted by Lord
Willoughby, Noell, Povey, and Watts, as partners and principals, with
Watts as sea captain in charge of the vessel; the other for a Nova
Scotia Company, composed of Lord William Fiennes, Sir Charles Wolseley,
Noell, Povey, and others, with Watts and Collier as managers and Capt.
Middleton as sailing master. The latter company was organized for
settling a trade in furs and skins in Nova Scotia, and to that end
engaged the cooeperation of Wolseley's cousin, Col. Thomas Temple,
lieutenant general of Nova Scotia since 1655, and of Capt. Breedon,
a prominent merchant of New England. It sent out a ship freighted with
goods under Capt. Middleton, but despite an auspicious beginning,
does not appear to have prospered. The title to Nova Scotia was disputed
not only by the French, but also by the Kirkes, whom Cromwell had
dispossessed in 1655, when he appointed Temple as governor; hostilities
broke out in Nova Scotia, and the company was called upon for a larger
stock and incorporation at a time when its promoters seemed unwilling to
risk more money. Though Povey was encouraged by the specimens of copper
which Temple sent over, the enterprise made no progress until after the
Restoration. It is probable that both Noell and Povey lost money by the
venture.
The project for a West India Company was more ambitious and must have
been formulated some time in 1656 or 1657. Various propositions were
drawn up with care, probably by Povey or by Noell and Povey together,
for the better serving the interests of the Commonwealth by the erection
of a company which had as its object the advancing of trade and the
prosecution of the war with Spain. The two ideas seem, however, to have
been kept separate. Trade was to be promoted by despatching a vessel to
"Florida" under Capt. Watts which, in case it was unable to open trade
there, was to take on a lading of pipe staves in New England, sail to
the West Indies, and return thence with a cargo of sugar and other West
Indian commodities. For the purpose of attacking Spanish towns, of
"interrupting the Spanish fleet in their going from Spain to the Indies
and in their return thence for Spain, and of ousting the Spaniards from
their control in the West Indies and South America"--a subject regarding
which Capt. Limbrey had drawn up a paper of information,--the company
proposed that the state should furnish and equip twenty frigates which
were to be fully provisioned, manned and officered by itself. The
company desired to be incorporated by act of Parliament,[3] rather
than by a patent under the great seal, because the former would confer
"diverse privileges and assistances, and an immunity and sole trade
in any place they shall conquer or beget a trade with the Spaniard's
dominion," all of which a patent could not convey. The proposals were
presented to the Council of State in 1659 and were referred to a special
committee. They were debated in Council on August 7, and on October 20
Povey wrote to Governor Searle that they had received encouragement
and hoped to have a charter from Parliament, and because "they have so
much favor from the state they will have an influence upon most of the
English plantations."[4] Either Parliament refused to incorporate the
company or in the distractions of the winter of 1659-1660 the proposals
were lost sight of.
The group of merchants, among whom Noell and Povey were so conspicuous,
seemed to desire, as far as possible, a monopoly of the trade in America
and the West Indies, and to that end controlled to no inconsiderable
extent political appointments there. Governor Searle, of Barbadoes,
was their appointee, and Governors Russell, of Nevis, and Osborn,
of Montserrat, were in close touch with them and looked to them for
support. In 1657, acting through the committee for America, they
recommended that Edward Digges be made governor of Virginia, and about
the same time Martin Noell and eighteen others petitioned that Capt.
Watts be made governor of Jamaica. Lord Willoughby was practically
one of them, and Gen. Brayne and Lieut. Gen. D'Oyley were on intimate
terms with them. It is not surprising, in view of the importance of the
colonial trade and the disturbed condition of the plantations, that such
a man as Povey, who was always ready with plans and proposals, should
have endeavored to solve the problem of colonial control. He was in
frequent consultation with Noell concerning matters relating to the West
Indies, and in consequence, many schemes were discussed and carefully
worked out by them. The various drafts touching the West India Company
are elaborated in minute detail, and Povey showed clearly that he
possessed admirable qualities as a committee-man and an organizer.
The first "overture" or plan seems to have been written in 1654 at the
time when the expedition of Penn and Venables was on its way to the
West Indies, and does not refer specifically to Jamaica. Its authors
recommended that a competent number of persons, not less than seven, of
good repute and well skilled in their professions and qualifications,
be selected to form a council. A greater number would be undesirable,
they said, because "in such an affair where there are many, the chief
things are done and ofttimes huddled up by a few; and there is neither
that secrecy, steadiness, nor particular care, nor so good an account
given of the trust, where more are employed than are necessary and
proportionable to the business."[5] The qualifications of the seven are
interesting: "(1) One to be a Merchant that hath been in those Indias
and trading that waie. (2) One also to bee a Merchant but not related
to that trade, and who rather retires from than pursues in profession.
(3) One well experienced Seaman, not or but little trading att present.
(4) One Gentleman that hath travailed; that hath language and something
of the civill Lawe. (5) One Citizen of a general capacitie and
conversation. (6) One that understands well our municipall Lawes and
the general Constitutions of England. (7) One to be a Secretarie to his
Highness in all Affaires in the West Indias, and relating thereunto, who
is solely to give himself up to this Employm^{t}." This council was to be
subordinated only to Cromwell and the Council and its powers were to be
fairly extensive. It was
"to have power to advise w^{th} all other Committees or Persons,
Officers, or others as occasion shall require;
"to consider (by what they shall observe here and what shalbee
represented from the Commission^{rs} now in the expedition) how
and what forreigne Plantations may be improved, transplanted,
and ordered;
"to reduce all Colonies and Plantations to a more certaine,
civill, and uniforme way of government and distribution of
publick justice;
"to keep a constant correspondence with the Commission^{rs} now
in the expedition, and w^{th} all the Chiefe Ports both at home
and abroad;
"to be able to give up once in a year unto his Highness a perfect
Intelligence and Account of the Government of every place, of their
complaints, their wants, their abundance of every ship trading
thither and its lading and whither consigned, and to know what the
proceeds of the place have been that yeare, whereby the intrinsick
value and the certaine condition of each port will be thoroughly
understood. And by this conduct and method those many rich places
and severall Governments and Adventures will have all due and
continuall care and Inspection taken of them, w^{th}out divertion
to the nearest Affairs of this Nation, w^{ch} being of so much of a
greater and a closer consequence, the Superior Council can seldome
bee at leisure to descend any further than to breife and imperfect
considerations and provisions, w^{ch} is the sad Estate of fforeigne
Dominions, and distant Colonies and Expeditions from whence usually
the most strict, or servile duty and obedience is exacted, but very
seldome any Indulgencie or paternall care is allowed to them.
"These therefore are to indeavour and contrive all possible
Encouragem^{ts} and Advantages for the Adventurer, Planter, and
English Merchants, in order also to the shutting out all Straingers
from that Trade, by making them not necessary to it, and by drawing
it wholly and with satisfaction to all parties into our Ports here,
that it may bee afterward instead of Bullion to trade with other
Nations, it being the Traffick of our own proper and native
Commodities. That our Shipping may be increased, our poore here
employed, and our Manufactures encouraged: And by the generall
consequencies hereof, a considerable Revenue may be raised to
his Highness.
"to debate among themselves, and satisfy themselves from others;
and to present their Results to his Highness in all matters
reserved and proper for his Highness Judgment and last
Impressions.
"to bee a readie and perfect Register both to his Highness and
all other persons, as far as they may be concerned, of all
particulars relating to those Affaires.
"The Secretarie may be the person to represent things from time
to time between his Highness and this Councill. To make and receive
dispatches. To make readie papers for his Highness signature.
And generally his Office wilbee to render the Supreame Management
& comp^{r}hension of this Affaire less cumbersome and difficult to
his Highness, hee being allwaies ready to give his Highness a full
and a digested consideration, if any particular relating to those
Affaires and w^{th}in the cognizance of that Council."[6]
That these recommendations had any influence in determining the
character of the Trade Committee of 1655 is doubtful, but the next
effort of the merchants was probably more successful. Some time in 1656
Povey drew up a series of queries "concerning his Highness Interest in
the West Indias" in which occur the following suggesive paragraphs:
"Whether a Councell busyed and filled with a multitude of
Affaires, w^{ch} concerne the imediat Safety and preservation
of the State at home, can bee thought capable of giving a proper
conduct to such various and distant Interests.
"Whether an Affaire of such a nature and consequence may be
transacted in diverse peices and by diverse Councells, and how
a proper Result cann be instantly arise out of such a kind of
management.
"Whether a Councill constituted of fitt Persons Solely sett apart
to the busyness of America be not the likeliest means of advancing
his Highness Interest there and of bringing them continually to
a certain account and readiness whensoever his Highness or his
Privie Councill shall have occasion to looke into any particular
thereof.
"Whether it be not a prudentiall thing to draw all the Islands,
Colonies, and Dominions of America under one and the same
management here."[7]
That the men who drafted these queries were mainly responsible for the
creation of the select council of 1656, at first known as the Committee
for Jamaica and afterwards as the Committee for his Highness Affairs
in America, we can hardly doubt, for the constitution and work of that
committee represents very nearly the ideas that Povey and Noell had
expressed up to this time. It is not to be wondered at that Povey should
have been the chairman, secretary, and most active member of this
committee after his appointment in 1657.
Two other propositions or overtures appear among Povey's papers that
belong to the period of the Protectorate, and were written probably
the one in 1656, known as the "Propositions concerning the West India
Councill," and the other, known as "Overtures touching the West Indies,"
before August, 1657.[8] In the first of these the number of the
council was to be ten, in the second it was not to exceed six. The
"Propositions" repeat in the main the points already quoted, including
the recommendation that it should be the business of the council
"to consider of the reducing all Colonies and Plantations to a more
certaine, civill, and uniform waie of Governm^{t} and distribution
of publick justice." The "Overtures" are much more elaborate, though
frequently containing the identical phrases of the first "Overture,"
with many new paragraphs which seem to show the same spirit of hostility
for Spain that is exhibited in the formation of the West India Company.
Indeed this document is an outcome of the same movement which led to the
formation of that company. Some of the more important sections are as
follows:
"To render what we already possess, and all that depends upon it,
to be a foundation and Inducem^{t} for future undertakings; by
gathering reasonable assistances from thence, and by mingling and
interweaving of Interest, and letting it appear that such Persons
and Collonies shall have the more of the Indulgencie of the State
as shall merit most in what they shall in any way be readier to do,
or contribut to the service of the whole; for hereafter they may
be considered as one embodied Commonwealth whose head and centre
is here.
"That every Governour shall have his Commission reviewed, and
that all be reviewed in one form, w^{th} such clauses and provisions
as shalbee held necessary for the promotion of his Highness other
public affairs, and that as soone as order can be conveniently taken
therein the several Governours to be paid their allowances from
hence (though upon their own accounts), that their dependencie bee
immediately and altogether from his Highness....
"That all prudentiall means be applyed to for the rendering these
Dominions useful to England, and England helpful to them; and that
the severall Peices and Colonies bee drawn and disposed into a more
certaine, civill, and uniforme waie of Government and distribution
of Publick Justice. And that such Collonies as are the Proprietie
of particular Persons or of Corporations may be reduced as neare as
cann bee to the same method and proportion w^{th} the rest w^{th}
as little dissatisfaction or injurie to the persons concerned as
may bee.
"That a continual correspondence bee so settled and ordered ...
that so each place w^{th}in itself and all of them being as it
were made up into one Commonwealth may be regulated accordingly
upon comon and equal Principles."
These proposals are followed by a series of propositions designed to
further the enterprise of the merchants and to aid in the defeat of
the Spaniards, whereby "those oppressed People (who are w^{th}held
from Trade though to their extreme suffering and disadvantage)" may
be released "from the Tyranny [of Spain] now upon them."
Taken as a whole, these documents form a remarkable series of unofficial
papers which formulate foundation principles of colonial empire that
England never applied. That these principles met the approval of those
who were to shape the colonial policy of the Restoration a further
examination will show.
* * * * *
[Footnote 1: Cal. State Papers, Col., 1574-1660; Dom., vols. for years
1650-1660, Indexes; Brit. Mus. Egerton, 2395, Add. MSS., 11410, 11411,
15858, f. 97, 22920, f. 22; Lansdowne, 822, f. 164, 823, f. 33.]
[Footnote 2: Cal. State Papers, Col. and Dom. Indexes; Egerton, 2395,
which contains Povey's collection of papers; Add. MSS., 11411, which
contains his correspondence. See also Dictionary of National Biography.]
[Footnote 3: A draft of such an act is to be found in Egerton, 2395, f.
202.]
[Footnote 4: Brit. Mus. Egerton, 2395, pp. 87-113, 176 (there is a
duplicate of Povey's letter in Add. MSS., 11410); Cal. State Papers,
Col., 1574-1660, pp. 475, 477.]
[Footnote 5: That all these proposals were drafted by Povey is evident
from similar terms and phrases used in his letters.]
[Footnote 6: Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 11411, ff. 11^{b}-12^{b}.]
[Footnote 7: Brit. Mus., Egerton, 2395, f. 86.]
[Footnote 8: Brit. Mus., Egerton, 2395, f. 99; Add. MSS., 11411, ff.
3-3^{b}. In a letter of August, 1657, Povey refers to these "Overtures,"
which he says were designed "for the better setting and carrying on of
the general affairs of the West Indies, enforcing the authority and
powers of the several governors there, and the establishment of a
certain course," etc.]