Sir Nicholas Crisp

9 Annotations

First Reading

Pauline  •  Link

from L&M Companion
kt 1641, bt 1665 (?1599-1666). A wealthy merchant, who pioneered the W. African trade in the 1630s; a customs farmer (1640 and c. 1661-6); M.P. for Winchelsea Nov. 1640-1 (being expelled as a monopolist); member of the Council of Trade (from 1660) and for Foreign Plantations (from 1661); and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber from 1664. He was interested in inventions--Pepys mentions his proposals for a wet-dock. The superb mansion he built at Hammersmith was later the home of George IV's Queen Caroline. In his will he directed that his heart should be buried in the chapel at Hammersmith and his body in St. Mildred's, Bread Street, and that his monument should record that he had lost 'out of purse about a Hundred Thousand pounds' by his pioneering efforts in the Guinea trade.

vicenzo  •  Link

best bib and tucker: Sir Nicholas Crisp, Bt (1599?-1666), Royalist. Sitter in 2 portraits. appears to be copied from earlier pix done by a non de script? or his [grand?] son, the date is to late for the Original, but style suggests other. [in many Families the genes are so cloning, 'tis in mine {Bl**** spiting Images} thru 4 gens, apparenly no cuckoo effect]http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp15738&role=art
he made his brass from Brickworks in Hammersmtith then invested in other trade:
Sir Nicholas Crisp 1599-1666, English royalist received from Charles I the exclusive right to trade goods to the people of Guinea in 1632. In 1665 he was created a Baronet Crisp, Sir Nicholas (c 1598-1666) 1st Baronet MP Commissioner of the Customs
then "... The adjacent window depicts the Arms of Sir Nicholas Crisp (1598-1661), a prominent Royalist whose benefactions to the church and brick-making industry of Hammersmith had much to do with its growth.. "http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/council_se…
made his home at and there be a window here at Bromley Hall Manor??

richard Brown  •  Link

He had a glass-bead factory producing trade goods for Red Indians at first English settlements (e,g, James Town) in Virginia. Many have been excavated from the site of his back garden in Hammersmith.

Zekria Ibrahimi  •  Link

Sir Nicholas Crisp was a total rogue who maliciously 'pioneered' the West African slave trade under the Stuart monarchy. He turned it from a matter of sporadic piracy into a thing of cruel and avaricious organization.

The tragedy is that his name is still honoured here in the area of London that is Hammersmith. He was the crooked founder of Hammersmith, which, no better than Bristol or Liverpool, has its roots in the deadly trade in black flesh. His coat of arms is to be seen in stained glass in Hammersmith Library in Shepherds Bush Road. He seem illuminated by light, although his career was one of duplicity and darkness. Nearby, in St. Paul's Anglican Church, facing Hammersmith Broadway, there is a memorial involving him and his loyalty to Charles the First. It is disgusting that a sinful slave trader should be commemorated in what is a Christian site. Here, mammon has usurped God. Crisp represents mammon in its most devious and twisted incarnation. There is also a road named after him in Hammersmith.

The unhappily ubiquitous Sir Nicholas Crisp, an octopus of a capitalist who united industry and the slave trade, who was obsessed with gold and the monarchy, continues to haunt Hammersmith as a very unwelcome ghost. His tentacles stretch everywhere- choking and strangling inter- racial harmony.

Bob  •  Link

"Sir Nicholas Crisp was a total rogue who maliciously ‘pioneered’ the West African slave trade under the Stuart monarchy. He turned it from a matter of sporadic piracy into a thing of cruel and avaricious organization."

I believe that this is too harsh a judgement on Crisp. He did not pioneer the West African slave trade, which had developed in the sixteenth century, and even in the seventeenth century he was not a main promoter of the trade. He has a place in history as the initiator and chief director of the gold trade in what is now Ghana in the period before the English Civil War. During the Commonwealth he was, as a royalist, out of favour and had no leadership role in any trading activity. After the Restoration he was back in favour and was associated with the new African Company that did develop the slave trade on a large scale. However he was now an elderly man, was not a leader of the company, and he died in 1666, only three years after the new Company had effectively taken over the trade.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

CRISP, Sir NICHOLAS (1599?-1666), royalist; received from Charles I the exclusive right of trading to Guinea, in company with five others, 1632; one of the body which contracted for the 'great' and 'petty' customs farms, 1640; knighted, 1641; M.P. for Winchelsea, but expelled from parliament as a monopolist, 1641; fined for having collected duties on merchandise without parliamentary grant; raised regiment for Charles I, 1643; received commission to equip fifteen war-vessels, 1644; his property sequestered by the parliament, 1645; fled to France; supported Monck at the Restoration, 1660; compounded the king's debt to the East India Company, 1662; customs farmer; created baronet, 1665.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

FROM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gui…

The Company of Adventurers of London Trading to the Ports of Africa, aka "The Guinea Company" was the first private joint stock company to trade in Africa for profit. It traded in slaves, gold and redwood (used for dyes) from the western Africa (today parts of Guinea and Sierra Leone). At its height, the Guinea Co. operated 15 cargo ships.

King James in 1618 granted The Guinea Co. a 31-year monopoly on the exportation of goods from West Africa to be imported into England.

In 1624 Parliament declared The Guinea Co.’s monopoly a grievance, despite the company suffering from financial difficulties.

In 1625 Nicholas Crispe became the principal organizer and profiteer. Crispe purchased the majority of the company’s shares for less than ₤800 in 1628. With his success came more objections.

Crispe earned King James' support by building trading forts on the Gold Coast of Komenda and Kormantin.

The Guinea Co. traded many commodities, one of which was gold, which in the beginning was its primary objective. Between 1618 to 1621, three expeditions were made up the Gambia River to collect gold. No profits were made, and after the third trip the company accumulated a loss of ₤5,600. After Crispe failed to find gold, the company resorted to the collection of redwood from Sierra Leone as its main export.

In 1631 a new charter was granted to the "Company of Merchants Trading to Guinea". Like the first charter, this was also for 31 years, but it covered from Cape Blanco to the Cape of Good Hope. While it may have appeared to outsiders to be a new trading company, it really was not. Many members were previously associated with The Guinea Co., including Crispe. By creating a new entity, they had opportunities to look for gold, particularly in eastern Sierra Leone.

In 1632 gold factories / trading posts were in Komenda, Kormantin, and Winneba. Three additional factories followed by 1650 at Anomabu, Takoradi, and Cabo Corso.

Along with gold as the main source of income, ships were sent east to Benin to trade for cloth which was brought back and sold for gold.

It is estimated that Crispe and the Merchants Trading to Guinea made a profit of over ₤500,000 from gold collected from 1632 to 1644.

In 1640, Crispe and his company were again pressured by parliament which ordered him to give up his monopoly on Guinea.

In 1644 Crispe's shares were taken away, and the company was later turned over to merchants who supported parliament.

The achievements of the Co. of Merchants Trading to Guinea have been somewhat unappreciated. They played a significant role in building trade and development along the west coast of Africa as well as bringing England into the gold trade through the Gold Coast.

According to parliamentary records, the company also appears to have been involved in the trade of enslaved Africans.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Sir Nicholas Crispe, 1st Baronet (c. 1599 – 26 February 1666 (O.S)) was an English Royalist and a wealthy merchant who pioneered the West African trade in the 1630s; a customs farmer (1640 and c. 1661-6); Member of Parliament for Winchelsea Nov. 1640-1 (being expelled as a monopolist); member of the Council of Trade (from 1660) and for Foreign Plantations (from 1661); and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber from 1664. He was knighted in 1640 or 1641 and was made a baronet in 1665. He died in February 1666 (O.S.) aged 67. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir…

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