John Lovell was an English slave trader. [1] He lived in the 16th century, making him one of England's earliest slave traders.
Lovell was one of England's earliest slave traders. He was a relative of John Hawkins, who employed him to go on a slave trading voyage between Africa and the Spanish West Indies in 1566. English explorer and privateer Sir Francis Drake, who was Hawkins' second cousin, was part of the crew and also likely a relative of Lovell's. [2]
Hawkins had made two slave voyages previously, which had angered the Spanish authorities. Under pressure from Spain, Hawkins had been prohibited by Queen Elizabeth I from undertaking slave voyages or going overseas, so instead he set up a new slave voyage with John Lovell as overall commander. [3]
Lovell left Plymouth on 9 November, 1566, with four ships under his command; Paul, under Master James Hampton; Salomon, under Master James Raunse; Swallow; and Pascoe, under Master Robert Bolton. [1] [3]
He sailed to Guinea off the African coast and through piracy captured a Portuguese ship laden with enslaved people and other items. In the Cape Verde Islands, he captured two more Portuguese ships, one carrying enslaved people and sugar. He then sailed to the Isle of Maio and captured another two ships. He then set sail for the Spanish West Indies to sell the enslaved people and other cargo. [3]
Lovell tried to sell the enslaved people at Rio de la Hacha (now known as Riohacha); however, the local governor, Castellanos, refused to allow the trade. Lovell was unable to sell the enslaved people so instead he picked ninety-two of most sickly or old and dropped them off to be taken by the Spanish. Two years later Hawkins returned to Rio de la Hacha on his next slave voyage and asked the same governor for compensation. [3]
The Spanish later embellished the Lovell story writing to the mainland;
"A few days later another large fleet of English galleons and ships appeared, in command of John Lovell, and he made extensive preparations to trade in this town. Seeing that this was not permitted to him, they played many guns upon us, against which we defended ourselves so that we beat them into flight." [3]
Lovell's voyage was viewed as a failure by both Hawkins and Drake. Hawkins remarked that the failure was due to the "simpleness" of his deputies. [2]
Lovell was a Protestant, and, in 1574, a Welshman called Michael Morgan, who had been on the trip, confessed while being tortured on the rack that he had been converted to Protestantism by Drake. Morgan remarked "They recited psalms in every ship, along with the other things that are specified in ... the books the Protestants use in England." [2]
Lovell was intolerant of other religious views and was recorded at Tenerife as saying "he had made a vow to God that he would come to these islands, burn the image of Our Lady in Candelaria, and roast a young goat in the coals." [2]
Sir Francis Drake was an English explorer and privateer best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580. This was the first English circumnavigation, and second circumnavigation overall. He is also known for participating in the early English slaving voyages of his cousin, Sir John Hawkins, and John Lovell. Having started as a simple seaman, in 1588 he was part of the fight against the Spanish Armada as a vice-admiral.
Sir Martin Frobisher was an English sailor and privateer who made three voyages to the New World looking for the Northwest Passage. He probably sighted Resolution Island near Labrador in north-eastern Canada, before entering Frobisher Bay and landing on present-day Baffin Island. On his second voyage, Frobisher found what he thought was gold ore and carried 200 tons of it home on three ships, where initial assaying determined it to be worth a profit of £5.20 per ton. Encouraged, Frobisher returned to Canada with an even larger fleet and dug several mines around Frobisher Bay. He carried 1,350 tons of the ore back to England, where, after years of smelting, it was realized that the ore was a worthless rock containing the mineral hornblende. As an English privateer, he plundered riches from French ships. He was later knighted for his service in repelling the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Admiral Sir John Hawkins was an English naval commander, naval administrator, privateer and slave trader.
Golden Hind was a galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580. She was originally known as Pelican, but Drake renamed her mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose crest was a golden hind. Hatton was one of the principal sponsors of Drake's world voyage. A full-sized, seaworthy reconstruction is in London, on the south bank of the Thames.
Thomas Doughty was an English nobleman, soldier, scholar and personal secretary of Christopher Hatton. His association with Francis Drake, on a 1577 voyage to raid Spanish treasure fleets, ended in a shipboard trial for treason and witchcraft, and Doughty's execution.
The Battle of San Juan de Ulúa was fought between English privateers and Spanish forces at San Juan de Ulúa. The English flotilla of six armed merchant ships under John Hawkins had been trading along the Spanish Main with the cooperation of local Spanish officials. However the central Spanish authorities considered this to be illegal smuggling that violated the Treaty of Tordesillas.
Singeing the King of Spain's Beard is the derisive name given to a series of attacks by the English privateer Francis Drake against the Spanish in the summer of 1587, beginning in April with a raid on Cádiz. This was an attack on the Spanish naval forces assembling in the Bay of Cádiz in preparation for the planned expedition against England. Much of the Spanish fleet was destroyed, and substantial supplies were destroyed or captured. There followed a series of raiding parties against several forts along the Portuguese coast. A Spanish treasure ship, returning from the Indies, was also captured. The damage caused by the English delayed Spanish preparations for the Armada by at least a year.
The Sea Dogs were a group of English privateers and explorers authorised by Queen Elizabeth I to raid England's enemies, whether they were formally at war with them or not. Active from 1560 until Elizabeth's death in 1603, the Sea Dogs primarily attacked Spanish targets both on land and at sea, particularly during the Anglo-Spanish War. Members of the Sea Dogs, including Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake, also engaged in illicit slave trading with Spanish colonies in the Americas.
The Cimarrons in Panama were enslaved Africans who had escaped from their Spanish masters and lived together as maroons. In the 1570s, they allied with Francis Drake of England to defeat the Spanish conquest. In Sir Francis Drake Revived (1572), Drake describes the Cimarrons as "a black people which about eighty years past fled from the Spaniards their masters, by reason of their cruelty, and are since grown to a nation, under two kings of their own. The one inhabiteth to the west, the other to the east of the way from Nombre de Dios".
The Battle of Cartagena de Indias (1586) or the Capture of Cartagena de Indias was a military and naval action fought on 9–11 February 1586, of the recently declared Anglo-Spanish War that resulted in the assault and capture by English soldiers and sailors of the Spanish colony city of Cartagena de Indias governed by Pedro de Bustos on the Spanish Main. The English were led by Francis Drake. The raid was part of his Great Expedition to the Spanish New World. The English soldiers then occupied the city for over two months and captured much booty along with a ransom before departing on 12 April.
The Battle of Santo Domingo (1586) or the Capture of Santo Domingo was a military and naval action fought on 1 January 1586, of the recently declared Anglo-Spanish War that resulted in the assault and capture by English soldiers and sailors of the Spanish city of Santo Domingo governed by Cristóbal de Ovalle on the Spanish island of Hispaniola. The English were led by Francis Drake and was part of his Great Expedition to raid the Spanish New World in a kind of preemptive strike. The English soldiers then occupied the city for over a month and captured much booty along with a 25,000 ducat ransom before departing on 1 February.
The Capture of Santiago was a military engagement that took place between 11 and 28 November 1585 during the newly declared Anglo-Spanish War. An English expedition led by Francis Drake captured the port town of Cidade Velha in the Cape Verde islands that had recently belonged to the Crown of Portugal. He sacked it and then marched inland before doing the same at São Domingos and Praia. Afterwards Drake left and continued his expedition to successfully raid the Spanish possessions in the Americas.
Drake's Assault on Panama also known as the Defence of Panama was a military event that took place in January 1596 during the Anglo–Spanish War. An English expedition under the command of Francis Drake and Thomas Baskerville attacked the Spanish Main via Nombre de Dios in order to cross the isthmus of Panama. Ravaged with dysentery and other diseases the English were repelled and defeated. Drake would die of the former and the expedition was forced to retreat back to England all the while harassed by the Spanish.
Francis Drake's circumnavigation, also known as Drake's Raiding Expedition, was an important historical maritime event that took place between 15 December 1577 and 26 September 1580. The expedition was authorised by Queen Elizabeth I and consisted of five ships led by Francis Drake. Termed a 'voyage of discovery', it was in effect an ambitious covert raiding voyage and the start of England's challenge to the global domination of Spain and Portugal.
On 15 November 1577, Francis Drake began a circumnavigation which would last for 1046 days. Before this journey, only a single expedition had completed a circumnavigation, one pioneered by Ferdinand Magellan. On Drake's voyage, Drake was the first Englishman to navigate out of the south Atlantic Ocean and during the journey, he established the first overseas possession claims executed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. At its completion, this was the longest voyage humans had made to date.
Francis Drake's expedition of 1572–1573 was an uncommissioned profiteering voyage by Sir Francis Drake in the western and southern quarters of the Caribbean Sea.
Young Hero was launched at Liverpool in 1785. She made six complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. On her first and second voyages she sailed under an asiento, that permitted her owners to bring and sell captives in Spanish territories. She was seized and condemned in 1794 after having landed the captives from her seventh voyage.
William was launched in Spain in 1788, almost certainly under another name. She was taken in prize in 1797. William sailed as a West Indiaman until 1800 when new owners started to sail her as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made four complete voyages as a slave ship. A report of her fourth voyage provides insight into the decision making over the planning of the voyage. Spanish privateers captured her in 1805 on her fifth slave voyage.
Anthony Parkhurst was an English explorer and promoter of English colonisation of North America in the 1570s and 1580s. He is best known for his early engagement in the English fishery off Newfoundland and his exploration of the island and its resources.