Richard Madox (11 November 1546 – 27 February 1583)

Oxford DNB The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

was an

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explorer, who served as a chaplain aboard

Edward Fenton Edward Fenton (died 1603) was an English navigator, son of Henry Fenton and Cicely Beaumont and brother of Sir Geoffrey Fenton. He was also a publisher of diaries and journals. Biography He was a native of Sturton-le-Steeple, Nottinghamshi ...

's voyage headed for the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...

and

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in 1582. He died during the voyage, but left a diary which has been republished and is preserved in the

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Biography

Madox was born on 11 November 1546 in

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, one of three brothers. He initially attended

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into the ...

and then became an undergraduate at

All Souls College All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

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, when he was 20. After receiving his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

, he was appointed a fellow of All Souls College, graduating with an MA in 1576.Feingold, Mordechai ''The Mathematicians' Apprenticeship: science, universities and society''. Cambridge University Press, 1984, p. 159. He was ordained as a priest five years later. Madox, along with John Walker, was appointed to the position of

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

's ''Galleon Leicester'', which set sail on 1 May 1582. Fenton was intending to sail around the

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to the

and

. Madox died on the voyage, on 27 February 1583, while the vessel was near Vitória,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Diary

Madox started writing his diary, which is now preserved in the

, on 1 January 1582.Boas, F. S. (1966)), ''University Drama in the Tudor Age'', p. 160. During the voyage on the ''Galleon Leicester'', Madox resorted to writing in a

cipher In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

, and then in

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and

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, in order to ensure his diary remained secret.James Fenton, 'All at sea: James Fenton on a seaman's secret diary', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 10 May 2008. As well as recording events on board, his diary during the voyage described various examples of flora and fauna which he encountered. He also included illustrations.Games, Alison (2008-07-15). ''The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion, 1560–1660'', p. 243. The last entry in Madox's diary, a comment on the weather, was written on 31 December 1583. His diary was published by the

Hakluyt Society The Hakluyt Society is a text publication society, founded in 1846 and based in London, England, which publishes scholarly editions of primary records of historic voyages, travels and other geographical material. In addition to its publishing rol ...

in 1976, edited by Elizabeth Story Donno, under the title ''An Elizabethan in 1582: The Diary of Richard Madox, Fellow of All Souls''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Madox, Richard English explorers English diarists 1546 births 1583 deaths 16th-century explorers 16th-century English writers 16th-century male writers