Sir Lewes Roberts, also Captain Lewis Roberts (1596–1641), was a British merchant with the Levant Company and writer.

Early life

Roberts, second son of Gabriel Roberts, a successful merchant by his wife Ann, daughter of John Hawarden of Appleton near

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...

, was born at

Beaumaris, Anglesey Beaumaris ( ; cy, Biwmares ) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town of Anglesey. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from ...

, in 1596. Expecting to attend university but compelled 'by adverse fortune or cross fate' to devote himself to commerce he was apprenticed in 1612 to Thomas Harvey, a London overseas merchant and member of the Drapers. For Harvey Lewes Roberts visited such places as Newfoundland, Malaga, Algiers and Tunis and lived in France, Italy, the Ionian Islands, Constantinople and Asia Minor. After Harvey's death in 1623 while Roberts was in Asia Minor Harvey's brothers obtained for Roberts the freedom of the

Levant Company The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired, ...

. In 1625 he was admitted into the Merchant Adventurers at

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and also joined the French company.

City of London

The next year he married Anne, daughter of Edward Williamott, a mercer and later acquired Williamott's stock in the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

. In 1628 he became a captain in the Artillery Company – which provided officers for the

trained bands Trained Bands were companies of part-time militia in England and Wales. Organised by county, they were supposed to drill on a regular basis, although this was rarely the case in practice. The regular army was formed from the Trained Bands in the ev ...

– and the following year became a citizen of London joining the

Drapers Company The Worshipful Company of Drapers is one of the 110 livery companies of the City of London. It has the formal name The Master and Wardens and Brethren and Sisters of the Guild or Fraternity of the Blessed Mary the Virgin of the Mystery of Dr ...

. In the Levant Company he was an assistant from 1630 to 1633 and its husband from 1633 to 1641. He was also a director of the East India Company for 1639–1640 but he fell ill at the time of the following election and he was not re-elected because he was, falsely, reported to have died. He leased a town house in

Threadneedle Street Threadneedle Street is a street in the City of London, England, between Bishopsgate at its northeast end and Bank junction in the southwest. It is one of nine streets that converge at Bank. It lies in the ward of Cornhill. History The stree ...

and a country house at Mason's Hill,

Bromley, Kent Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...

Author

Roberts had been well educated and had expected to attend university before he was obliged to be apprenticed to Harvey the overseas merchant. His first appearance in print was as the author of verses inserted at the front of friends' books, the first in 1633. He enjoyed the society of

Izaak Walton Izaak Walton (baptised 21 September 1593 – 15 December 1683) was an English writer. Best known as the author of ''The Compleat Angler'', he also wrote a number of short biographies including one of his friend John Donne. They have been colle ...

and other literary men, and they returned the compliment in his own major work, ''The Merchants Mappe of Commerce'', published 1638. An immediate success with the merchant community new editions were published until 1700.

Economics

''The Treasure of Traffike'', or, ''A Discourse of Forraigne Trade'' was published in 1641, Roberts' closely reasoned analysis showing the benefits of the export trade and how imports supported local industry. Furthermore, he demonstrated that the re-export trade should not be taxed at all. Some protection for domestic manufacturers was advocated and his treatise continued to be cited for more than a century.

Family

Roberts married Anne, daughter of Edward Williamott,

mercer Mercer may refer to: Business * Mercer (car), a defunct American automobile manufacturer (1909–1925) * Mercer (consulting firm), a large human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City * Mercer (occupation), a merchant or trader ...

, of London, on 28 November 1626, at

St Andrew Undershaft St Andrew Undershaft is a Church of England church in the City of London, the historic nucleus and modern financial centre of London. It is located on St Mary Axe, within the Aldgate ward, and is a rare example of a City church that survived both ...

, London, Their children included: *Sir Gabriel 1629–1715 (aged five in 1634) who was sub-governor of the

African Company of Merchants The African Company of Merchants or Company of Merchants Trading to Africa was a British chartered company operating from 1752 to 1821 in the Gold Coast area of modern Ghana, engaged in the Atlantic slave trade. Background The company was establ ...

and father-in-law of

John Deacle John Deacle (c. 1664–1723), of Wingrove, Buckinghamshire and Aldermanbury, London, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1722. Deacle was the only son of Edward Deacle of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire and his f ...

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

Minister,

Obadiah Hughes Obadiah Hughes (1695–1751) was an English Presbyterian minister. Life Education He was the son of George Hughes (died in November 1719), minister at Canterbury, and was born in 1695. His father was grandson of George Hughes (priest), George Hu ...

and Sir John Fryer *William 1633-1667, like his brother Gabriel, a leading assistant of both the Levant and Royal African Companies. Great-grandfather of

Wenman Roberts Coke Wenman can refer to: *Viscount Wenman, noble title ;People *Charles Wenman (born 1797), English cricketer who played for Kent *Charles Wenman (theatre) (c. 1876–1954), Australian theatre manager and producer *Diana Wenman, American television dir ...

and patrilineal ancestor of the Earls of Leicester, 7th Creation. *Sarah who married Peter le Piper *Delicia who married John Nelson, a Turkey merchant and was mother of philanthropist and nonjuror Robert Nelson *Anne who married George Hanger of Driffield Gloucestershire, was mother of

John Hanger John Hanger (born 1957) is the former Pennsylvania Secretary of Planning and Policy, serving on the executive staff of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. Hanger has served as Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, a p ...

, governor of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

and Sir George Hanger, and grandmother of Sir George's son,

Gabriel Hanger, 1st Baron Coleraine Gabriel Hanger, 1st Baron Coleraine (9 January 1697 – 24 January 1773) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1753 and 1768. He was honoured with an Irish peerage. Hanger was the son of Sir George Hanger of Driffi ...

. He died in London and was buried in St. Martin's Outwich on 12 March 1640/1641. His wife Anne, who died 24 February 1665, is buried beside him. A portrait is prefixed to the first edition of the 'Merchants Mappe of Commerce.'

Works

* ''The Merchants Mappe of Commerce; wherein the Vniversall Manner and Matter of Trade is compendiously handled, &c.'', London, 1638, fol. As one of the earliest systematic treatises on its subject in English, this gave Roberts a wide reputation; prefixed are

commendatory verse The epideictic oratory, also called ceremonial oratory, or praise-and-blame rhetoric, is one of the three branches, or "species" (eidē), of rhetoric as outlined in Aristotle's ''Rhetoric'', to be used to praise or blame during ceremonies. Origin ...

s by Izaak Walton; 3rd edit. enlarged, London, 1677, fol. … to which is annexed 'Advice concerning Bills of Exchange,' &c. y T. Marins with … Engglands Benefit and Advantage by Foreign Trade, demonstrated by T

omas Omas may refer to: * Omaswati, Indonesian comedian * Places in Peru: ** Omas District ** Omas City {{dab ...

Mun;' 4th edit. London, 1700, fol. * ''Warre-fare epitomised,'' 1640, 4to. * ''The Treasure of Traffike, or a Discourse of Forraigne Trade, &c. Dedicated to the High Court of Parliament now assembled, London, 1641, 4to; reprinted in M'Culloch's ''Select Collection of Tracts on Commerce'', &c., London, 1856, 8vo. * Some verses by a 'Lod. Roberts,' probably the merchant, are prefixed to Fletcher's 'Purple Island' (1633)

References

*Updated with new information from Sonia P. Anderson, Roberts, Lewes (1596–1641), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Lewes 1596 births 1641 deaths People from Beaumaris English Presbyterians English economics writers Directors of the British East India Company Levant Company 17th-century English people 17th-century Presbyterians 17th-century merchants