Matthew Cradock (also spelled Craddock and Craddocke; died 27 May 1641) was a London merchant, politician, and the
first governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Company
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. Founded in 1628, it was an organization of
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
businessmen that organized and established the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. Although he never visited the colony, Cradock owned property and businesses there, and he acted on its behalf in London. His business and trading empire encompassed at least 18 ships, and extended from the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
and
North America to Europe and the
Near East. He was a dominant figure in the
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
trade.
Cradock was a strong supporter of the
Parliamentary cause in the years leading up to the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
. He opposed royalist conservatism 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 South ...
and, as a member of the
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
, supported the ''
Root and Branch'' attempts to radically reform the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
. He played a leading role in the
Protestation of 1641, and died not long after.
Early life and business
![Reddragonship](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Reddragonship.jpg)
Nothing is known of Matthew Cradock's early life. He was from a
Staffordshire family; a cousin, also named
Matthew Cradock, was mayor of Stafford, and built a mansion on the site of
Caverswall Castle
Caverswall Castle is a privately owned early-17th-century English mansion built in a castellar style upon the foundations and within the walls of a 13th-century castle, in Caverswall, Staffordshire. It is a Grade I listed building. The castle i ...
, Staffordshire. Although his father was a cleric, his grandfather was a merchant, and other family members were involved in trade.
[Brenner, p. 137] Cradock was twice married. By his first wife Damaris he had a daughter, also named Damaris; by his second wife, Rebeccah, he had three children that apparently did not survive. Rebeccah survived him, but the children are not mentioned in his will.
In 1606 he was an apprentice to
William Cockayne
Sir William Cockayne (Cokayne) (1561 – 20 October 1626) was a seventeenth-century merchant, alderman, and Lord Mayor of the City of London.
Life
He was the second son of William Cokayne of Baddesley Ensor, Warwickshire, merchant of London, so ...
at the
Skinners' Company, then a major
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
shipping firm.
[Andrews, p. 90] He probably began trading with northwestern Europe, but eventually expanded his business to the
Near East.
[ Cradock joined the Levant Company in 1627, and in 1628 he purchased £2,000 of 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 South ...
.[Bailyn, p. 17] Cradock served as a director of the East India Company in 1629–1630 and again from 1634 until his death in 1641.[ Cradock used his business and personal connections to establish a lucrative trade, shipping New World ]tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
to the Near East and sending provisions to the colonies in North America and the West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
that produced it. He is known to have been owner or part owner of 18 ships between 1627 and 1640,[Andrews, p. 91] and he was one of a relatively small number of businessmen whose trade encompassed both eastern trade (to India and the Levant) and trade in European waters. By the end of the 1630s he stood at the center of one of the largest trading businesses involved in the Americas. In 1640 Cradock was a member of a group of business men who opposed the conservative royalist leadership of the East India Company, engaging in an unsuccessful attempt to reform the company's directorate.
Massachusetts Bay Company
Interest by London merchants in establishing and managing colonial settlements in North America waned after the 1624 failure of the London Company and the subsequent conversion of the Colony of Virginia into a Crown colony. Cradock was a notable exception; a Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...
, in 1628 he made a major investment in the New England Company
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England (also known as the New England Company or Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent in America) is a British charitable organization created to promote ...
, formed by a group of Puritan religious and business leaders to take over the assets of the failed Dorchester Company
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as th ...
and make new ventures in the colonisation of North America.[ Cradock was elected the company's first governor on 13 May 1628.] Not long after, the company acquired a grant of land on Massachusetts Bay
Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Gulf of Maine that forms part of the central coastline of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Description
The bay extends from Cape Ann on the north to Plymouth Harbor on the south, a distance of about . Its ...
from the Plymouth Council for New England
The Council for New England was a 17th-century English joint stock company that was granted a royal charter to found colonial settlements along the coast of North America. The Council was established in November of 1620, and was disbanded (alt ...
, and sent John Endecott
John Endecott (also spelled Endicott; before 1600 – 15 March 1664/1665), regarded as one of the Fathers of New England, was the longest-serving governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He serv ...
with a small group of settlers to begin the process of establishing a colony at a place now called Salem, Massachusetts
Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...
.
The company's land grant was not without problems, because it overlapped a grant that had previously been acquired by John Oldham. Cradock wrote to Endecott in early 1629, warning him about the issue, suggesting that he settle colonists in the claimed area and also that he treat well the Old Planters (the surviving colonists from the failed Dorchester Company settlement). Cradock also recommended the colonists work on building ships and other profit-making activities. Later in 1629 another small fleet sailed for the colony; on board, in addition to Puritan settlers, were skilled craftsmen of all types who were engaged in Cradock's businesses.
The company, in order to protect its claims, acquired a royal charter in 1629, under which Cradock was named the colony's governor in London, while Endecott governed in the colony. In that same year, financial instability in the government caused by King Charles I's desire to prosecute a war with Scotland led the company's investors to fear their investment might be at risk. Cradock, at a shareholder meeting in July 1629, suggested that the company transfer its governance to the colony itself, something that was only possible because the charter did not specify where the company's shareholder meetings were to be held. However, some investors (Cradock among them) did not want to emigrate to the colony, so a means to buy out those investors needed to be devised. After negotiating through the summer, an agreement was reached on 29 August 1629. It called for those shareholders who were emigrating to buy out those that remained in England after seven years; the latter would also receive a share of some of the colony's business activities, including the fur trade. John Winthrop
John Winthrop (January 12, 1587/88 – March 26, 1649) was an English Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major settlement in New England following Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led t ...
, one of the shareholders who was emigrating, was elected the company's governor in October.
Winthrop sailed to Massachusetts in 1630, and the fleet carrying the colonists included two of Cradock's ships, and agents and servants of his who were to see to his commercial interests. Cradock, who took leave of the emigrants at the Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
, remained behind in England. Cradock's representatives secured for him a plantation at Medford, which became a base for business operations funded by Cradock, including the colony's first shipyard. As the colony developed, Cradock's land holdings expanded to include properties in Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...
and Marblehead.
Even though he did not travel to the colony, he continued to operate in London on its behalf. In 1629 he worked to recruit sympathetic Puritan ministers to emigrate. He sought permission from the king's Privy Council to freely export provisions to the colony, claiming the colonists were in dire straits due to a shortage of provisions and threats from Native Americans.[ He and Governor Winthrop exchanged letters; in one written in 1636 Cradock promised £50 toward the establishment of an institute of higher learning now known as ]Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
.[
Actions by the Massachusetts Bay Colony rulers came into question at the Privy Council in 1633. Several opponents of the Puritans levelled charges that the colony's administrators sought independence from the crown and laws of England; Cradock and other company representatives were called before the council to answer these charges. They successfully defended the actions of the colonists, but the Puritans' opponents succeeded in having ships full of colonists detained from sailing in February 1633/4 until the colonial charter was presented to the council for inspection. Cradock was called upon to provide it; he informed the council that the charter was in the colony, and secured the release of the ships with a promise to have the charter delivered. The colonial council in ]Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, not wanting to send the document for fear the charter would be revoked, temporized, claiming in their July 1634 meeting that the document could only be released by a vote of the colony's General Court. It was not scheduled to meet until September, at which time the matter would be taken up. The General Court refused to consider the issue, and began fortifying Boston Harbour, expecting a military confrontation over the issue. The 1634 launch of a ship intended to carry a force to the colony was unsuccessful, ending the military threat to the colony. The political threats continued, and the charter of the Plymouth Council of New England, issuer of the colony's land grant, was revoked. Furthermore, criminal charges, some of them clearly trumped up, were laid against Cradock and others associated with the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1635. Cradock was acquitted of most of these charges, but was convicted of usurpation of authority and deprived of his ability to act on behalf of the company.
Politics
In 1640 Cradock was an auditor of the City of London Corporation
The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...
.[Beaven, p. 290] In April 1640, he was elected Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
for the City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
in the Short Parliament, and he was again elected to the Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
in November 1640. He and other London MPs were politically allied to the Parliamentarian faction of Sir Henry Vane the Younger
Sir Henry Vane (baptised 26 March 161314 June 1662), often referred to as Harry Vane and Henry Vane the Younger to distinguish him from his father, Henry Vane the Elder, was an English politician, statesman, and colonial governor. He was bri ...
, and he supported the '' Root and Branch'' petition calling for radical reforms of the Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
.[ In the opening session of the Long Parliament he denounced the king's plan of fortifying the ]Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...
, and declared that the city would not contribute its share of taxes until the garrison was removed.[ In early May 1641 Cradock brought word to the Parliament reports that the king was planning to send armed troops to seize the Tower of London; this news sparked the Protestation of 1641, in which Cradock played a leading role. He continued to be active in the Parliament, serving on a committee for ]recusant
Recusancy (from la, recusare, translation=to refuse) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation.
The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign ...
s,[ until his death, which was apparently quite sudden, on 27 May 1641.
]
Family
Damaris, Matthew Cradock's daughter by his first wife, married first Thomas Andrewes, citizen and Leatherseller of London (the son of Sir Thomas Andrewes
Sir Thomas Andrewes (died 1659) was a London financier who supported the parliamentary cause during the English Civil Wars, and sat as a commissioner at the High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I. During the Third English Civil War, as L ...
, Lord Mayor of London in 1649 and in 1651-52). There were several children: Andrewes died in 1653. She then married Ralph Cudworth
Ralph Cudworth ( ; 1617 – 26 June 1688) was an English Anglican clergyman, Christian Hebraist, classicist, theologian and philosopher, and a leading figure among the Cambridge Platonists who became 11th Regius Professor of Hebrew ...
, a leading figure of the Cambridge Platonists
The Cambridge Platonists were an influential group of Platonist philosophers and Christian theologians at the University of Cambridge that existed during the 17th century. The leading figures were Ralph Cudworth and Henry More.
Group and its na ...
and Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, by whom she became mother of three further sons and a daughter, Damaris Cudworth, Lady Masham. Matthew Cradock's daughter Damaris Cudworth died at High Laver
High Laver is a village and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of the county of Essex, England. The parish is noted for its association with the philosopher John Locke.
History
High Laver is historically a rural agricultural parish, pred ...
, Essex, in 1695.
Rebeccah Cradock, Matthew's second wife, remarried first to Richard Glover, and lastly to Benjamin Whichcote, another senior figure of the Cambridge Platonists, Provost of King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...
, a close colleague of Ralph Cudworth's. Both were closely associated with Mathew Cradock's nephew, Samuel Cradock
Samuel Cradock, B.D. (1621?–1706) was a nonconformist tutor, who was born about 1621. He was an elder brother of Zachary Cradock.
Education
Cradock entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, as a pensioner (fee-paying student) from Rutland, and was ...
(a pupil of Whichcote's), whose brother Zachary
Zachary is a male given name, a variant of Zechariah – the name of several Biblical characters.
People
*Pope Zachary (679–752), Pope of the Catholic Church from 741 to 752
* Zachary of Vienne (died 106), bishop of Vienne (France), martyr an ...
was Provost of Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...
.[ ] Cudworth, Whichcote and the brothers Cradock had all been students at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
*
External links
Charter of Massachusetts Bay
a copy in the Avalon Project at Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
* Carl Seaburg and Alan Seaburg
A Peculiar Plantation: 17th Century Medford
extract from ''Medford on the Mystic'', published by The Medford Historical Society, April 1980.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cradock, Matthew
Year of birth missing
1641 deaths
English businesspeople
Levant Company
Directors of the British East India Company
West Indies merchants
Colonial governors of Massachusetts
Roundheads
17th-century English merchants
Members of the Parliament of England for the City of London
English MPs 1640 (April)
English MPs 1640–1648