THE CASE OF MRS. PENTLOW
Among the numerous devices for the collection of cash to which the
Grand Vizir had recourse before setting out on the war path, were
some that touched foreign residents directly. Until his time all
Franks had been exempt, by virtue of their Capitulations, from the
_Haratch_, or poll-tax, levied upon non-Moslem Turkish subjects.
The immunity extended to the Dragomans of the various European
Embassies and Consulates, as well as to other natives under foreign
protection. Every Ambassador received from the Porte a number of
_Barats_, or Patents, which, though given to him for the benefit
of his own servants only, he was, by an abuse of privilege, in the
habit of selling to wealthy _rayahs_--Greeks, Armenians, or Jews:
so that the suburbs of Galata and Pera had come to be peopled very
largely by privileged persons (_Baratlis_). For some years past the
Farmers of the Revenue had been drawing attention to this state of
things, and even overstating it, in order to beat down the Farm;
but their representations had produced no effect until 1677, when
by order of Kara Mustafa an inquisitor was appointed to ascertain
the facts. This official came over, and not being offered a bribe,
as he expected and as one who had come on a similar errand some
time before had received, executed his commission with exemplary
conscientiousness. The upshot was an edict limiting foreign
Ministers and Consuls to three Dragomans and obliging them to
obtain fresh Barats for them. Moreover, the Grand Vizir ordained
that every Frank who was married to a country-born woman should
henceforth be deprived of the benefits of the Capitulations, pay
_Haratch_, and be treated in all respects as a _rayah_.
As was natural, married Franks denounced the measure bitterly:
they had come to Turkey on the understanding that they should
live in it as free men, and now by a stroke of Kara Mustafa’s
pen they were suddenly reduced to the position of slaves. The
outcry was loudest among the French and the Dutch, upon whom the
innovation fell most heavily: some forty Frenchmen, including the
chief merchants, and three of the principal Dutch merchants had
native wives. But notwithstanding all that the French Ambassador
and the Dutch Resident could say or do, and all the endeavours
of private individuals, and all their offers of money, not the
least grace was shown to them. The rich French merchants escaped
the consequences of the edict by purchasing titular Consulships
at Gallipoli, Athens, and so forth; but their poorer compatriots
were disfranchised. The English had so far been very little
affected. Sir John had easily obtained the necessary Patents for
his Dragomans. Nor did the marriage disqualification trouble
them, as, with very few exceptions, our colony consisted of gay
bachelors.[221]
But now--soon after Kara Mustafa’s return to Adrianople--there
arose a case which was to cost our countrymen dearly.
Mr. Samuel Pentlow, a wealthy English merchant of Smyrna, who was
married to a Greek lady, had just died, leaving his widow and his
children--a son about three years of age and a daughter three or
four months old--to the care of his Assigns, Mr. Gabriel Smith
and our old acquaintance Mr. John Ashby, with instructions that
they should be sent home to enjoy the lands and other possessions
he owned in England, together with his Smyrna estate, which was
commonly estimated at something between two hundred thousand and
half a million dollars: fruit of thirty years’ labour in the
Levant. In obedience to the wishes of the deceased, the Assigns
took passage for his family in an English ship about to sail from
Smyrna. But the other residents, fearing, in view of Kara Mustafa’s
recent edict, that the departure of the woman and children without
official permission might expose the colony to the Grand Vizir’s
attentions, protested to the Consul and the Ambassador, who agreed
that this business could not safely be done in a clandestine
manner. The Assigns, therefore, entered into negotiations with the
Cadi. This gentleman was quite willing to wink; but he demanded his
reward in advance, while Messrs. Smith and Ashby would not part
with a single asper until after the thing was done. Their caution
offended the sensitive Cadi, who, out of spite, hastened to inform
the Grand Vizir of the contemplated elopement.
Kara Mustafa so far had only had enough of English gold to
stimulate his appetite, not enough to satisfy it: gratification
but gave him ampler zest. He only waited for an occasion to take
another and bigger bite. And here was the best of all imaginable
occasions. Without delay he passed the information on to the Grand
Signor, who, in his turn, consulted the Mufti: What should be done
to Turkish subjects that attempted to fly the country? The oracle
responded that they deserved to have their property confiscated:
that was the Law. A decree was accordingly issued, and despatched
to Smyrna by an Aga, who also had orders to bring Messrs. Smith and
Ashby to Adrianople that they might give an account of the estate.
This done, another messenger was despatched to Constantinople with
a letter from the Grand Vizir for the Ambassador, notifying to him
the fact and asking him to send to Adrianople a Dragoman to be
present at the examination of the Assigns: which, Sir John said,
was very civil of the Vizir; “but this civility was attended by a
Sting in the Tayl bidding me take care that in Smirna nothing was
acted contrary to this Command.”
The message upset Sir John very much. He did not want to have any
more trouble with the terrible Vizir. Things had been going on so
well--and now this Sting in the Tayl! Sir John was angry--not with
Kara Mustafa, nor even with Messrs. Smith and Ashby: strange to
say, he was angry with the late Mr. Pentlow. His thoughts of the
deceased, when he reported the case to the Secretary of State,
became winged words--his quill an arrow barbed and envenomed: “He
is the onely man since our Trade into Turky that ever marryed Here,
and was worth any thing,” he wrote, and as he wrote, his wrath grew
into virulence: “How it [Pentlow’s estate] was gott I know not, How
he livd’ I know, He would not afford Himselfe bread, but livd’
upon other Merchants’ Tables; After the Birth of His Sonne the
first child, when the Mother was bigg of a second, He dischargd’
a Pistoll unwares just behind her back to make Her miscarry, That
charges might not encrease.”[222]
It would be idle to enter into a serious examination of these
scurrilous irrelevancies. That the Pentlow fortune had not been
built up wholly with clean hands, may easily be credited (few
great fortunes ever are); and there is some evidence that the late
merchant had not been exceptionally careful about his methods.[223]
But what, in the name of common sense and common decency, had the
ethics of the deceased to do with the case? The question at issue
was one of law: it all turned upon the interpretation of a clause
in the Capitulations, which ran as follows: “If any Englishman
shall come hither either to dwell or traffique, whether he be
married or unmarried, he shall be free.” Hitherto this clause
(which figured in the Capitulations of all other nations also)
had been construed by everybody as including Europeans married
to native as well as to foreign women; and the Turks had never
questioned that construction, until Kara Mustafa, the year before,
had thought fit to announce that “that Article was to be understood
onely of such who were marryd’ to those that were not subjects
of the Gran Signor.” Was he justified in so doing? The Levant
Company thought not. In an account of this case presented to the
King, it emphatically maintained that the Turkish contention that
“Pentlow his wife and children were subjects to the Grand Signor”
was a breach of “the Article wee have in Our Capitulations to the
contrary.”[224] On the other hand, the Company’s Treasurer at
Constantinople, after recording both interpretations, refused to
commit himself to a definite pronouncement, though, on the whole,
he thought that, “in a case any thing dubious, it is shrewdly to
be feared that their [the Turks’] interpretation will stand before
ours.”[225] The Ambassador, however, preferred the line of least
resistance. Rather than risk another conflict with the Grand Vizir,
he accepted without question his view of the matter. “Pentlow,”
he wrote, “by marrying a Greeke made Himselfe a subject to the
Gran Signor, as the Visir in Pentlow’s life time had declard’; the
Turkish Law making them all so. But Pentlow having children They
without all dispute were by the Turkish Law born subjects.”
Acting upon this trouble-saving view, Sir John had tried to
dissuade the Assigns from sending away the widow and children,
and when he perceived that his remonstrances made no impression
upon them, he advised the Consul to keep out of the affair. But
he did not venture to issue a categorical prohibition, lest he
should be accused of betraying the Pentlow estate into the hands
of the Turks, “who,” it might have been said, “had not otherwise
taken notice of their advantage.”[226] From this neutral attitude
nothing could induce Sir John to depart. However, he sent his
Dragoman with a letter to the Vizir, to assist the Assigns--at
least so he says; though, according to another version, before the
Grand Vizir’s disturbing message had reached the Ambassador, his
Dragoman, Signor Antonio Perone, had gone to Adrianople with Mr.
North on some other affairs, and to their surprise they found the
Assigns with the Chief Dragoman of the Smyrna Consulate already
there. Be that as it may, Messrs. Smith and Ashby certainly did not
profit by the presence of those gentlemen; but, left to their own
resources, made a mess of the business.
To begin with, they declared that all the property entrusted to
them amounted to no more than 50,000 dollars. Kara Mustafa was
not convinced; common report credited the late merchant with ten
times that amount; and he already knew Mr. Ashby. He therefore
informed him and his co-administrator that, unless they rendered
a true account, they would have their arms and legs broken, or
at least be put into the galleys. At the sound of these gruesome
threats, Messrs. Smith and Ashby raised the inventory to 70,000
dollars: and that, they said, was all. But the Turks still refused
to believe them: the whole truth or torture! At length the Assigns,
overcome by fear, agreed to deliver within two months 90,000
dollars: 50,000 for the Grand Signor’s Exchequer; 30,000 for the
Grand Vizir; and 10,000 for his Kehayah. Then the Turks proceeded
to give a final turn to the screw--one of those humorous little
turns that marked every Turkish extortion: Messrs. Smith and Ashby
were made to promise the Aga, who had escorted them from Smyrna
and who would escort them back and keep them in custody until
payment was completed, a present of 3500 dollars “for his pains and
charges.”[227]
Kara Mustafa, too, had his little joke. After finishing with
the Assigns, he informed the Ambassador that he had done _him_
a friendly turn: he had interceded with the Grand Signor on his
behalf and had prevailed upon his Majesty to pardon him--for 90,000
dollars--the crime of endeavouring to send away the Grand Signor’s
subjects: the Ambassador must now take care that the money was paid
within the time agreed upon.
The humour of this message was lost upon Sir John: “Two things
here I cannot understand,” he gravely told the Secretary of State,
“First, How I come to be taxd’ of an Action I expressely wrote
against to the Consul at Smirna many moneths together, and made
him disown it. Secondly, how I come to be responsible for a summe
of mony, for the freeing of Private Persons and a Private Estate,
by virtue of an Agreement made without my Notice: Suppose the Rack
and Tortures had made them subscribe 10 Times that summe?” Was this
what he got after all his strenuous efforts not to enmesh himself
in the snares of that unspeakable Kehayah and his master? Verily,
the ways of the Turks were past comprehension. “It seems they looke
upon Publick Ministers Here as Publick Hostages; and will have
the Prince to answer for the miscarriages of every one of their
subjects.”[228]
Meanwhile the subjects in question were beginning to regret at
leisure the bargain they had huddled up in panic. On their way to
Smyrna they paid the Turks 10,000 dollars on account, and when
they got there they made some further payments. But presently they
perceived that they had not so many assets of the deceased in their
hands as they thought, and what they had it was not easy to dispose
of--who dared buy goods that lay under Kara Mustafa’s thumb? After
selling all they could at such prices as they could get, they still
found themselves short of the stipulated sum by 20,000 dollars.
In their perplexity they asked the Nation for a loan wherewith
to clear themselves. Both the Factory of Smyrna and that of
Constantinople unanimously petitioned the Ambassador to advance the
money out of the Levant Company’s Treasury, in order to avoid an
“avania.” Kara Mustafa, they knew, would stick at nothing. But the
Ambassador refused to interfere. He would do nothing to countenance
the Turkish pretension that the Public was in any way responsible
for the liabilities of individuals.
To crown the wretched Assigns’ embarrassment, the Turks would not
wait for the day of payment. They demanded the balance at once,
and, on being told that the money was not available, they seized
the house in which the widow lived, broke open her late husband’s
warehouses, and put the goods they found therein up for sale. But
the plunder meeting with few buyers at Smyrna, most of it was sent
up to Constantinople, and the remainder, as was natural in the
circumstances, fetched only a fraction of its real value. When the
Turks had counted the proceeds, they declared that there was still
a deficit of 15,000 dollars to be made good. Utterly demoralised by
this catastrophe, Messrs. Smith and Ashby abandoned all thoughts
of fulfilling their bargain, and fled to the Ambassador for
protection. His Lordship answered that what they suffered was
entirely their own doing: he could not free them from an engagement
to which they had set their signatures; but he would see what he
could do to mitigate their distress by obtaining for them, if
possible, an extension of the time limit. The Assigns declined
such qualified assistance, and declared that they washed their
hands of the whole business. So the Turks, who, on their part, were
determined not to remit one asper of their bond, put them in prison.
This brought upon the stage Mrs. Pentlow. While our men of the West
were content with a rôle of Oriental passivity, this lady of the
East decided on direct action.
In the springtime of the year (1679), when the Imperial Court
arrived at Constantinople, the widow, taking one of her children,
went up to the capital with the intention, it was said, of making a
personal appeal to the Grand Signor. The Grand Signor’s Ministers,
alarmed, endeavoured, partly by fair and partly by other means,
to deter her. She persisted, and at last got back her house and
some money for her expenses, and, as to the Assigns, the promise
that they should be released for 2000 dollars--a concession which
Kara Mustafa could well afford to make, for the tin brought to
Constantinople from Pentlow’s warehouse, when sold, had yielded a
large sum above the estimate at which it had been taken, almost
making up the balance due.
Mrs. Pentlow returned to Smyrna thinking that the Assigns would be
pleased with her efforts. But Messrs. Smith and Ashby were past
being pleased with anything. Though their liability had narrowed
down to a matter of only 2000 dollars, they refused to pay. In vain
did their friends urge them to be sensible. They met all counsels
with the angry obstinacy of exasperated sheep: they would not
disburse another penny: they would rather lie in prison till a new
Ambassador came out, when, they doubted not, justice would be done
them. They had been robbed, they cried, by the Kehayah and his
accomplices. The Grand Signor knew nothing of it: it only required
a competent ambassador to bring their case to his notice, and all
would be well. The Turks, failing to bend, decided to break, their
obstinacy by throwing them into a dungeon. Our merchants, however,
had by this time lashed themselves into furious recklessness: they
resisted and very nearly killed the officer who came to remove them.
Things had reached this dangerous climax when the Smyrna Factory
stepped in to avert a tragedy. By the instrumentality of the
Chaplain there was raised a fund for the prisoners’ redemption; and
so Mr. Ashby is out of it again, without bone broken--not, we hope,
without instruction from the adventure. As for Mrs. Pentlow and her
children, we shall hear of them again in due time.
Sir John Finch, as usual, praised God that the trouble was over,
and took to himself credit for keeping it off himself and the
Consul of Smyrna and for saving the Company 20,000 dollars by his
non-interference. Things, he believed, might have been much worse
but for his masterly inactivity: “so high did the Sea’s run, which
God be thanked, are now brought to a Calm.” But how long would the
calm last?--“the being in Turky under this Goverment,” he says,
“is like the being in a ship, where though Wee are this houre under
a fair wind and a serene skye, the Next hour may bring us a cloudy
Heaven, and a fierce Storm. And I protest to you, it takes my whole
thoughts to become a Good Pilot.”[229]
FOOTNOTES:
[221] _Life of Dudley North_, pp. 84-5; Finch to the Levant
Company, Jan. 19-29, 1677-78, _Coventry Papers_.
[222] Finch to Coventry, Feb. 17-27, 1678-79.
[223] See _Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1672-73_, p. 114:
“Thomas Bankes to the King. Petition for the needful order to Sir
John Finch, now going ambassador to Constantinople, to call to
account Samuel Pentlow, John Folio [Foley], and other merchants of
Smyrna, to whom he sent a large estate 13 years ago, which they
enjoy at their pleasure, that they may give satisfaction for the
same.”
[224] _Register, S.P. Levant Company_, 145. See also Appendix XIV.
[225] _Life of Dudley North_, p. 86.
[226] Finch to Coventry, _loc. cit._
[227] _Life of Dudley North_, p. 87.
[228] Finch to Coventry, Feb. 17-27, 1678-79.
[229] Finch to Coventry, Aug. 19-29, 1679.