Middleton



Sir Henry Middleton (d.1613) merchant and sea-captain, was the second son of John Middleton of Chester, sheriff in 1570. Henry was born in the parish of St Peter and was one of at least nine children. Robert Middleton, sheriff of Chester in 1518, was probably his grandfather. In his will, Henry styles Thomas Myddelton lord mayor of London in 1613–14, as "my loving and good friend". Thomas' son, Sir Thomas Myddelton (1586-1666, ownwer of Chirk Castle) would play a part in the Cheshire campaign during the Civil War, and The Booth Rising. Henry died at Bantam, Java, on 10 Feb in 1613. The story of Henry and his brothers is at odds with that of other mariners of late Elizabethan and early Stuart Chester.

Thomas Middleton and David Middleton had been sheriffs in 1512-13, Robert Middleton in 1518-19. Edward Middleton was mayor in 1523-4, and David Middleton (1496-1548: born at Chirk Castle?) mayor in 1538-9. John Middleton, sheriff in 1270-1. A discussion of the complex relations between the Middletons of Chirk and Chester can be found in the report Paradise Lost. It was probably the money gained from the Far East voyages that enabled the family to leave Chester and move to Middleton Hall - now the site of the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

Formed on 31 December 1600, the East India Company's (EIC) first voyage departed on 13 February 1601. The flagship of the five-vessel fleet was "Malice Scourge", purchased from the Earl of Cumberland for £3700; he had initially asked for £4000. There was at first some reluctance on the part of the EIC to acquire the vessel:


 * "her burthen being so great, whereby the Tunage agreed uppon shallbe so greatly exceeded" but they relented "to the ende the preparation of the viage [voyage] be not hindred by restinge in uncertentie of shipping."

Originally chartered as the "Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies", the company rose to account for half of the world's trade during the mid-1700s and early 1800s, particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and opium. The company also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India. The first voyages were funded in a rather an odd way, with individual sums being raised for each group of ships sent out and a joint stock company was only formed later. The story of the Middletons is largely reconstructed from the work of Samuel Purchas (c. 1577 – 1626) who wrote several volumes of reports by travellers to foreign countries. Those concerning the Middletons are in Volume 8, Chapter 10.

First Voyage


Middleton's elder brother, John, was one of the twenty-four directors of the newly formed East India Company in 1599, and was both the vice-admiral and captain of Hector (300 tons and 108 men) when that vessel took part in 1600 under Captain James Lancaster in the first voyage fitted out by the company. The other ships being Ascension (260 tons, 82 men, Captain William Brand) and Susan (84 men, John Hayward). To these was added, as a victualler, the Guest of 100 tons with 40 crew. On John's recommendation, 10 Oct. 1600, Henry was appointed purser of the Malice Scourge, afterwards named the Red Dragon, which was engaged in Lancaster's expedition; but before the fleet sailed Henry was advanced to be a factor for the voyage, and another purser was appointed in his stead.

They replenished their provisions from a captured Portuguese vessel (Viana) en route, but much of the fleet was affected with scurvy by the time they arrived at Table Bay (modern South Africa) on 9 September. Lancaster had managed to prevent the sailors on his own ship from being so stricken by regularly dosing them with lemon juice, and he was forced to send members of his own crew to help man the other ships into the harbour. They stayed at Table Bay for seven weeks before departing, navigating along the eastern side of Madagascar. Since leaving England, they had lost more than a fifth of their crew complement across the fleet, but those that remained were fit and healthy. On 5 June, the fleet arrived in the road of Aceh, on the northern end of Sumatra, where they found sixteen or eighteen sail of different countries, and John Middleton with four or five gentlemen were sent to see the "King", Ala-uddin Shah, who was delighted at the prospect of trade with the English, and granted them an exemption from customs dues as well as rights to establish a "factory" where "factors" could organise trade. However the goods then available at Aceh failed to even fill one of the ships. The ships were carrying a cargo of woollen cloth and different kinds of metal (iron, lead and tin). The problem was that Sumatrans were not very interested in trading their precious spices for these goods - given the climate in Sumatra, wool seemed particularly useless to the natives.

At Aceh, in June 1602, Lancaster appointed Henry to Susan (formerly a Levant trader) as "captain and chief-merchant", and sent him to Pariaman half-way down the south Sumatran coast to try and procure a laduing of pepper and spices. Whiie Henry was away Lancaster decided to target Portuguese vessels in the Strait of Malacca to increase his cargo. The mission was successful, a Portuguese carrack of 900–1,000 tons called São Thomé was captured. The vessel had sailed from San Thomé (now part of Chennai), and the goods of calicoes and other produce were transferred onto the English ships. Susan returned having obtained an acceptable cargo of cloves and pepper, and in December sailed for England, where Henry arrived on 21 June 1603. Red Dragon and Hector, travelled south to Java where they set up a second "factory" at Bantam (close to the Dutch base at Batavia) and eventually arrived back in England on 11 September 1603, but not with John Middleton who had died at Bantam shortly after his brother Henry and Susan had set sail for home. As the annals of the EIC record:


 * "We went on with our trade, so that by the 10th February, 1603, our ships were fully laden and ready to depart. In the mean time, Mr. John Middleton, captain of the Hector, fell sick on board his ship in the road. For, from the very first of our voyage, the general made it an invariable rule, if he were ashore, that the vice-admiral must be on board, and vice versa, that both might not be at one time from their charge. Hearing of his sickness, the general went aboard to visit him, and found him much weaker than he himself felt or suspected, which experience in these hot climates had taught our general to know; for, although Captain Middleton was then walking about the deck, he died about two o'clock next morning."

Despite its relatively short-lived existence, the English East India Company's trading factory at Bantam would prove to be fundamental in developing Britain's relationship to Asia and its European competitor empires. It represented the English muscling in on the power of the Portugese and more importantly the dominant Dutch in the Spice Islands trade. Bantam provided a trading hub that would allow teas from China, spices from the Philippines and pepper from the Indies to all be coordinated for shipping back to the lucrative European markets.

Second Voyage
On Lancaster's return, Henry Middleton was appointed to command the second voyage fitted out by the EIC, and on 25 March 1604 he sailed from Gravesend in Red Dragon, having also under his command Hector, Ascension, and Susan, but when they stopped at the Downs, it was discovered that they were forty men short of their complement, and so had to wait for the remaining men. There was then a rather farcical series of events where as the new crew arrived it was discovered that they would have suplus crew so some men were actually paid off and put ashore.

After touching at Maio, one of the Cape Verde islands, they sailed again on 26 April, but being becalmed in the doldrums, they did not sight the Cape of Good Hope till 13 July. Although in the former voyage Middleton had seen the value of lemon juice being doled out by Lancaster, he had taken no measures to provide his ships with it. The men had consequently suffered severely, and, contrary to the company's orders, the fleet was obliged to stop for a month at the Cape to get fresh produce which still contained vitamins.

On 19 Dec. they made the coast of Sumatra, and anchored at Banten near the east tip of Java on the 23rd, the men being, by this time, again at the last extremity of weakness. On 18 Jan. 1604–5, Middleton, in Red Dragon, with Ascension, went on eastwards ttowards the Banda Sea, and Hector and Susan were ordered home with cargoes of pepper. The men were at this time dying fast; twenty-six are named as having died on board Dragon between leaving Banten and anchoring at Ambon on 10 Feb. And just at this time the Dutch seized the island, and so put an end to all chance of trade there.



After long debate and with much misgiving, the Ascension and Dragon resolved to separate, the former going to Banda, the latter to the Moluccas. They sailed from Ambon on 18 Feb., and on 22 March after a tedious voyage Dragon got off Tidore, where the Portuguese had a settlement, and were supporting the natives in a war with their neighbours at Ternate, who were aided by the Dutch. Middleton's force was too insignificant to permit of his taking any part in the quarrel, which ended in the complete defeat of the Portuguese.

The Dutch then threw every possible obstacle in the way of the English trade; and though Middleton managed, here and there, to pick up some cloves, it does not appear that he had anything like a full cargo when, on 24 July, the Dragon anchored again at Bantam. She sailed for England on 6 Oct., and on 19 December, standing in for Table Bay, sighted Hector in the last extremity of distress, almost all her men being dead. Middleton sent men on board to take her into the bay, where they stayed for a month, and where they were joined by Ascension.

They sailed on 16 January, and, after touching at St. Helena, anchored in the Downs on 6 May 1606. Middleton's services were promptly recognised. He had pushed his voyage much further than the company had dared to order him, and the profits were very great. He was knighted at Greenwich on 25 May 1606; and ten years later he was still described as "the thrice worthy general who laid the true foundation of our long desired Cambaya trade".

1607: David Middleton
A third brother, Captain David Middleton in Consent, appears to have been intended to accompany the fleet under Captain William Keeling. But setting out on the 12th March, 1607, from Tilbury Hope, while Captain Keeling did not reach the Downs till the 1st April, Middleton either missed the other ships at the appointed rendezvous, or purposely went on alone. David was the younger brother of John and Sir Henry Middleton and in 1601 jointly commanded a voyage to the West Indies. In 1604 he went to the East Indies with his brother Henry, as second captain of Red Dragon, and is mentioned as having conducted the negotiations with the native kings of Ternate and Tidore. He returned with Henry in May 1606, and on 12 March 1606–7 sailed from Tilbury as captain of Consent, one of the ships of the third voyage under William Keeling.

Fifth Voyage
One ship only, Expedition belonging to London, appears to have been employed in this fifth voyage which was commanded by David Middleton. Whose own narrative of the journey survives. The following are extracts as provided by Purchas:


 * "We set sail from the Downs the 24th April, 1609, in the Expedition of London, and had sight of Fuerteventura and Lançerota the 19th May; and with the winds sometimes fair, sometimes foul, we arrived at Saldanha bay the 10th August. Making all haste to wood and water, we again sailed the 18th August, and arrived at Bantam on the 7th December, missing Captain Keeling very narrowly, who must have passed us in the night, or we must surely have seen him. I made all possible dispatch, both by day and night, to get the iron ashore, and would not even stop to set up our pinnace."


 * "We got sight of the islands of Banda on the 5th February, and made all sail to get near before night. When near, I sent my skiff to procure intelligence from some of the natives, who sent me word that the Hollanders would not allow any ship to come into the roads, but would take all our goods, if they were such as they needed, and pay for them at their own pleasure. They said, likewise, that when any junks happened to come there with vendible commodities, they were not permitted to have any intercourse with the people; but were brought to the back of the Dutch castle, within musket-shot of their cannon, no one being allowed to set foot on shore, under penalty of being shot. There were, as was said, fifteen great junks detained under the guns at this time. "

Sixth Voyage
In 1610 Middleton was appointed to command the sixth voyage set forth by the East India company, and sailed from the Downs on 4 April in Trade's Increase, having in company Peppercorn, commanded by Nicholas Downton, and Darling. The voyage out was comparatively fortunate, and there was no exceptional sickness when, on 7 November, they arrived at Aden.

Leaving Peppercorn there, Middleton, with Darling, went on to Mocha; but in entering the roadstead, in charge of a native pilot, Trade's Increase was run ashore, and much of her cargo and stores had to be landed before she could be floated off. The governor, or aga, received Middleton and the merchants with every appearance of friendship; but a few days later, 28 Nov. when a large working party was on shore, he suddenly attacked them, killed eight in the scuffle, and made prisoners of Middleton and the others, to the number of fifty-nine. He then attempted to seize Darling, which was lying close in shore; but in that the "Turks" were repulsed with heavy loss. For more than three weeks the prisoners were kept at Mocha, heavily ironed; they were then sent to the bashaw at Sinan (Sanaa), where they were more humanely treated and allowed to communicate freely with the ships.

Downton, who had arrived from Aden in Peppercorn, proposed making reprisals on the "Turkish" and Indian trading vessels, but Middleton restrained him, fearing that "it might prove prejudicial to him and his company." The bashaw, he said, had promised that they should all be set free at the coming of the westerly winds; if he suspected any breach of faith, he would make his escape. And when he learnt that a fleet of galleys was expected from Suez, and that the aga was negotiating for the hire of some of the larger country ships which Downton had allowed to come to Mocha, Middleton, on 15 May 1611, with fifteen of his men, did make his escape, got on board Darling, and sent orders to Downton to join him at once with the other ships.

He then, by a strict blockade of the port, compelled the "Turks" to send back all the men who remained in captivity, and to restore the goods which had been seized on shore, or to pay compensation for the loss, and after refitting at Socotra, he went to Surat (this was before the British established their first factors there in 1612), where he arrived on 26 Sept 1610. He found the place closely blockaded by a Portuguese fleet of eighteen frigates, which made communication with the shore difficult, and prevented fresh victuals or refreshments being sent off for the men who were suffering from scurvy. After some skirmishing the prohibition to trade was partially withdrawn; but the governor was in too great dread of the Portuguese to receive the English with any appearance of friendship. He refused them permission to establish a factory, and after a stay of four months ordered them to leave. The merchants on shore were also ordered away, no time being allowed them to get in their debts. On 11 Feb. 1611–12 they sailed for Dabul, but neither there could any trade be done; and Middleton thought himself poorly recompensed by seizing a Portuguese ship of three hundred tons, and taking out of her what she had of value:


 * "cloves, cinnamon, wax, and bales of raw China silk—but a mite in comparison to the loss inflicted on the venture by the Portuguese."

From Dabul he went back to the Red Sea, blockaded Aden and the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and seized several Indian ships by way of reprisals; but learning that the company's fleet of the year (the eighth voyage), under the command of John Saris, with whom was Gabriel Towerson, had passed into the Red Sea, he went in and joined Saris at Assab. He then demanded from the "Turks" one hundred thousand pieces of eight as compensation for former injuries and insults, and would probably have forced them to pay but for an angry quarrel between him and Saris, partly about the division of the spoil, and still more, it would seem, about their precedence.

Finally they accepted something like a third of their demand from the Indian ships; and so with much ill-feeling, and without ‘the usual courtesies,’ they separated in the beginning of August 1612, Middleton, with Peppercorn in company, going to Tecoa, where he joined Darling on 19 October. From Tecoa they went to Bantam, and Middleton proposed to send Downton home in Trade's Increase with a cargo of pepper, while he himself, in Peppercorn, should attempt another voyage to the Moluccas. It was found, however, that Trade's Increase was in need of a very extensive refit; so in the beginning of February 1612–13, Downton sailed for England in Peppercorn. After a few months Trade's Increase, while being careened, fell over on her side, became a total wreck, and was maliciously set on fire by the Javanese. Most of the men died from their injuries, and with them Henry Middleton himself, on the 24th May 1613.

1614: David sails again
In May 1614 he sailed once more for the East Indies in Samaritan, with Thomas and Thomasine under his orders, and arrived at Bantam on 14 February 1614–15. A full cargo was collected, and after sending the smaller vessels to other ports, Middleton, in Samaritan, sailed for England on 3 April 1615. But the ship was wrecked on the coast of Madagascar, and though it was at first reported that "passengers and goods were saved", the loss seems to have been total. The first report of Middleton's death reached the Company on 5 September 1617. No exact news was ever received, but he was registered as dead, and his will proved on 18 April 1618. On 6 October 1624 the court of directors had under consideration a letter in favour of Middleton's son. "After much reasoning the court called to mind that the captain lost both ship and goods to a very great value, and therefore they gave it for answer that there is nothing due".



Family
It does not appear that Middleton was married; the entries in the Calendar of State Papers (East Indies) to the contrary effect are certainly erroneous, as is shown by his will (at Somerset House), dated on board the Trade's Increase 29 March 1610, and proved by Alice, wife of David Middleton, on 22 June 1614. By this, his brother David, and David's son Henry, are left executors and residuary legatees. Mention is made of his brother Christopher (c. 1570-1639); of his three sisters, Katharine Tetlow, Margaret Burre, who has been erroneously named as his daughter, and Ursula Fawcet; his niece and god-daughter, Joan Burre; his cousins, John Haylin, Margaret Radford, Jane Hill, and her sister Sarah Hanmer; ‘my sister, Alice Middleton’ (David's wife), and her daughter Elizabeth; ‘my sister, Margery Middleton’ (Christopher's wife?); also Sir Thomas Myddelton (1550-1631) and his son Sir Thomas Myddelton (1586–1666) of Chirk Castle, (both were apparently merchant adventurers, with the older being a founder of the EIC), Hugh Myddelton, Captain William Myddelton, Captain Roger Middleton, and his brother William, and Robert Middleton. None of these last are described as relations; but in John's will dated 5 March 1600–1, proved by Henry 27 Oct. 1603, Hugh Myddelton is styled "cousin"; the sisters, Margaret and Ursula, were then unmarried, and two other brothers, Jarrett and Randall, are named, as well as his father, John. David in his will, mentions Robert Middleton (who was a merchant adventurer) also as a "cousin".

There are two contemporary 16th-century and related branches of the Middleton family, one of Denbigh and one of Chester. The Chester branch would inter-marry with the Bavands. Richard Bavand (Alderman, sheriff 1571-2, mayor 1581-2, 1600-1 and MP 1584) was a Chester merchant, described in 1589 as ‘ironmonger, vintner, mercer and retailer of many commodities’. He had considerable property in the city and its neighbourhood, and increased his estate by marriage to a local heiress. His mother was Margaret, daughter and coheiress of one of the Middletons of Chester.

The Chester Merchant Adventurers
Chester had its own Merchant Venturers "guild" (founded in 1554) and it has been proposed that they may have been at some time based at Bishop Lloyd's House. In 1554 the Chester Merchant Venturers had been granted a charter by Queen Mary which gave them a monopoly of all trade to the continent, besides excluding retailers and all followers of manual occupations. The latter provision seems to have been disregarded almost from the beginning; the Chester Merchant Adventurers became a fairly comprehensive body despite some early disputes with the town corporation, and the charter was confirmed in 1559. The Chester Merchant Adventurers were involved both in extensive internal squabbles and a long term dispute with the Spanish Company prior to the Anglo-Spanish war (1585–1604). By the time these various arguments had been settled the war had actually started.

The EIC in India
Sir James Lancaster’s 1591 voyage into the Indian Ocean was the first English attempt to reach the East via the Cape. Both its funding, and its armed shipping, was provided by Auditor Smythe and his Levant Company. Lancaster's voyage was disastrous in it’s loss of life and investment, but provided useful information about the Portuguese presence in the area. Only one of Lancaster’s ships, the Edward Bonaventure, made it back from the Indies, and that on a skeleton crew. The last survivors, five men and a boy, worked it home with its cargo of pepper, which they had earlier looted from a passing Portuguese ship. Lancaster himself, marooned on the Comoro Islands with the rest of his crew after he was shipwrecked during a cyclone, finally found his way home in 1594. In 1595 Captain Benjamin Wood tried his luck; all three of his ships, the Bear, the Bear's Whelp and the Benjamin, were lost and not an Englishman survived. Meanwhile Lancaster led a privateering expedition against Pernambuco and Recife in Brazil, aimed at seizing the cargo of a storm-damaged Portuguese carrack which had put in there on its way back from India. Unlike the East Indies voyage, this was (according to Hakluyt's account) highly professional in its conduct and very successful. Some sources state eroneously that this was after picking up a chance-met separate squadron under "Captain Henry Middleton". However Lancaster led an assault landing, seized the town and (some say with the assistance of a flotilla of Dutch traders who also threw in their lot with him) held it for several weeks and embarked the carrack's cargo along with local produce. It was this success and his earlier experience which led to his being selected for command of the East India Company's attempt.

In the commencement of its operations, the East India Company proceeded upon rather an anomalous plan for a great commercial company. Instead of an extensive joint stock for a consecutive series of operations, a new voluntary subscription was entered into among its members for each successive adventure. That of the first voyage was about £70,000. The second voyage was fitted out by a new subscription of £60,450. The third was £53,500. The fourth £33,000. The fifth was a branch or extension of the third, by the same subscribers, on an additional call or subscription of £13,700. The subscription for the sixth was £82,000. The seventh £71,581. The eighth £76,375. The ninth only £7,200. In 1612, the trade began to be carried on upon a broader basis by a joint stock, when £429,000 was subscribed, which was apportioned to the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth voyages. In 1618, a new joint stock was formed by subscription, amounting to £1,600,000.

For the early merchant adventurers, establishing a foothold in India was not an easy task. The East India Company did not establish its first 'factory' or permanent depot until 1619 (some sources say 1612), at Surat. The opportunity for the British to greatly expand came in 1661, when Charles II married Catherine of Braganza and as part of his dowry gained Bombay from the Portuguese. Her 23 June 1661 Marriage Treaty gifted the islands to Charles II of England, along with the port of Tangier, trading privileges in Brazil and the Portuguese East Indies, religious and commercial freedom for English residents in Portugal, and two million Portuguese crowns (about £300,000), on completion of the marriage. The Islands of Bombay were regarded as a political and financial liability and were leased by Charles, to the English East India Company, on 27 March 1668, for a nominal £10 rent.

The company eventually came to rule large areas of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. Company rule in India effectively began in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey and lasted until 1858 when, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 led to the British Crown assuming direct control of India in the form of the new British Raj.

Related Pages

 * St Peter;
 * Bishop Lloyd's House;
 * Bruen;

People

 * Jaames Lancaster;
 * Henry Middleton (DNB);
 * David Middleton (mariner);
 * Middleton, Christopher (1560?-1628)
 * MIDDLETON, DAVID (d. 1615), merchant and sea-captain (DNB);
 * The Middletons and the EIC;

Other Links

 * Red Dragon (1595);
 * The voyage of Sir Henry Middleton to Bantam and the Maluco Islands;
 * Other Middletons at the Chester Civic Trust (see "Bavand");
 * Annals of the EIC;
 * Court Minutes of the East India Company;
 * Middleton: A Paradise Lost;
 * William Aldersley: Merchant Adventurer of Chester;