Nicholas Crisp
Encyclopedia
Sir Nicholas Crispe, 1st Baronet (c. 1599 - 26 February 1666 (O.S)) was an English
Royalist
and a wealthy merchant who pioneered the West Africa
n trade in the 1630s; a customs farmer (1640 and c. 1661-6); Member of Parliament for Winchelsea
Nov. 1640-1 (being expelled as a monopolist); member of the Council of Trade (from 1660) and for Foreign Plantations (from 1661); and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber from 1664. He was knighted in 1640 or 1641 and was made a baronet
in 1665. He died in February 1666 (O.S.) aged 67.
, a prominent cleric and antinomian.
Crisp made money from brickworks in Hammersmith
then invested in other trade. Crisp’s main commercial interests were in the trades to India
and Africa
. Like his father he was a substantial stockholder in the East India Company
, and throughout his twenties he imported a wide variety of commodities, including cloves, indigo
, silk
s, pepper
, elephant tusks
, calicoes, and shells. The shells were specially purchased on his behalf by the company’s agents and it is thought that they were used to finance the purchase of slaves in west Africa.
and Sierra Leone
. At their height, the Guinea Company owned and operated 15 cargo ships.
James I
granted the company a 31 year monopoly
on the exportation of goods from West Africa to be imported into England. In 1624 Parliament declared the Guinea Company’s monopoly a grievance, despite the company suffering from financial difficulties. However, it was not until seven years after being founded and a year after parliament’s opposition when Nicholas Crisp became the principal organizer and profiteer in 1625. With this new found success, it also brought along a more resounding impression of objection from England. The Guinea Company had a great deal of growth with Nicholas Crisp, who had become the primary stock holder and benefactor in 1628.
Nicholas Crisp got most of his royalist support through the building of trading forts on the Gold Coast
of Komenda and Kormantin, which the King, James I, saw them as a great value to future of England/Africa trade.
The Guinea Company had touched on many different trades, one of which was gold, which in the beginning was its primary objective. Yet, the Guinea Company was not to succeed through this trade. From the years 1618 to 1621, 3 expeditions were made up the Gambia River to collect gold, as it was thought that there was much gold to be found. No profits were made, and after the third trip the company accumulated a loss of ₤5,600, which was a great deal of money during this era as Nicholas Crisp had purchased the majority of the company’s shares for less than ₤800. After Nicholas Crisp had failed in leading the company in finding gold along the Gambia River, they resorted to the collection of Redwood from Sierra Leone as their main export.
In 1631 a new charter was formed and granted to the “Company of Merchants Trading to Guinea”. Like the first charter in 1618, this too was for 31 years, but it was from Cape Blanco to the Cape of Good Hope. While it may seem to outsiders as a completely new trading company, it was not. Much of the members were in fact associated with The Guinea Company, including Nicholas Crisp. By creating a new name for themselves, it gave them more opportunities in expanding their industry, particularly in the Eastern part of Sierra Leone as a means for gathering gold. In 1632 gold factories were made in Komenda, Kormantin, and Winneba. Three additional factories soon followed: Anomabu, Takoradi, and Cabo Corso. Along with gold as the main source of income, ships were sent east to Benin to retrieve cloth where it would be brought back and sold for gold. It is estimated that Nicholas Crisp and his company made a profit of over ₤500,000 through the gold they had collected within the 11–12 years after 1632.
According to British parliamentary records, the company also appears to have been involved in the trade of enslaved Africans.
A sizeable assemblage of early-17th century glass beads and ‘wasters’ were discovered in association with a brick furnace in the grounds of the private estate of Sir Nicholas Crisp (on what is now Hammersmith Embankment) during excavation in 2005. Crisp had a patent for making and vending beads and he also obtained a patent for slave trading from Guinea to the West Indies. These beads were probably used for both the local and colonial markets as researchers have uncovered similar beads in the Americas and in Ghana. This is the first clear archaeological evidence for the manufacture of early post-medieval glass beads in England.
Other members of the Crisp family were also involved in the African trade, sometimes in a significant way, over the same period.
Elected to the Long Parliament
he was expelled in 1641 for collecting duties on merchandise which he used as security to loan money to the cash-strapped King Charles I without the authorization of Parliament.
On New Year’s Day 1640, Charles knighted Crisp, recognising his past services, but perhaps more importantly, anticipating his further services.
-controlled London. However he was questioned by the House of Commons in January 1643 about £3,700, which an intercepted letter revealed as owed to him ‘for secrett service done for his Majestie’. He promptly slipped away to Oxford, where he was warmly welcomed by the King, but his houses in Hammersmith and Lime Street
were ransacked.
Crisp was forced by Parliament to surrender his patents for making and vending beads and for slave trading from Guinea to the West Indies. An order relating to a debt owed by Sir Nicholas Crisp to the Navy was laid before the House of Lords
in December 1643. The House of Commons of England
had ordered that Crisp's share in the Guinea Company, his trading venture to Africa, should be used to cover this debt. The arrival of gold from this adventure now prompted the House of Lords to confirm that Crisp's share in this should be used to pay off the debt.
Crisp ’s supported the King in a number of ways throughout the Civil War. He was at the centre of a plan in March 1643 to head a force to take over London, but the idea failed. He was also frustrated in his attempts to raise an infantry regiment of 1,500 later that year.
However on 6 May 1644, he was commissioned to equip 15 warships at his own and his partner’s expense and granted a tenth of any prizes taken by them. Operating from west country ports, he ferried troops from Ireland
and played an important role in shipping tin
and wool
to the continent. He would also bring back arms and ammunition as a return cargo, and ultimately held the important position of deputy controller-general of posts. His allegiance to the crown was steadfast, even after Charles I was executed in 1649 and he was forced to flee to France like many others. Family connections allowed him to return but his politics had not changed in the least and in the run up to the Restoration, Crisp performed secret services and raised money for exiled Charles II. He was among those London Royalists who signed the declaration in support of General Monk to restore the Stuart monarchy. He was also involved in clandestine support for royalist conspiracies, such as the abortive plot of 1650 to land forces from the Scillies on the Cornish coast.
In May 1660 Crisp was one of the committee sent to meet Charles II
at Breda
as he returned to England to take to the throne his father had vacated.
he was paid back in part for all he had lost defending the Crown. The King also appointed him to a number of prominent offices to make up the deficit. He tried to regain his former trading position, but was unsuccessful, though his membership of the Company of Adventurers did give him some influence on the trade.
He was mentioned in Samuel Pepys
' diary on 11 February 1660; 25 January, 15 and 19 February, 5 September 1662; and 22 August 1663. Pepys notes his inventiveness and mentions his proposals for a wet-dock.
In 1665 Charles II honoured his loyal servant by creating him a baronet.
He died 26 February 1666 (O.S.) aged 67.
in east London, but:
He was a great benefactor to the borough of Hammersmith, supporting the building of Hammersmith’s first church, that later became St Paul’s, supplying both money and bricks. The memorial to Crisp was transferred to the newer church, which was built on the same site in 1883. On June 18, 1898, his remains and his heart were reunited in a chest tomb which stands in the churchyard of St Paul's by the north-east door of the church.
Crisp was a sitter in a portrait by Robert Hartley Cromek but the date, 1795, is too late to be original, it is copied from an earlier portrait by an unknown artist.
Crisp was also responsible for building Brandenburgh House in Fulham Palace Road. Originally named the "Great House" by Crisp, this impressive residence was later the home of King George IV’s estranged wife Queen Caroline
.
There is a Crisp Road in Hammersmith named after him.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Royalist
Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of government, but not necessarily a particular monarch...
and a wealthy merchant who pioneered the West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
n trade in the 1630s; a customs farmer (1640 and c. 1661-6); Member of Parliament for Winchelsea
Winchelsea
Winchelsea is a small village in East Sussex, England, located between the High Weald and the Romney Marsh, approximately two miles south west of Rye and seven miles north east of Hastings...
Nov. 1640-1 (being expelled as a monopolist); member of the Council of Trade (from 1660) and for Foreign Plantations (from 1661); and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber from 1664. He was knighted in 1640 or 1641 and was made a baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
in 1665. He died in February 1666 (O.S.) aged 67.
Early life
Little is known of his early life and even his name is variously spelled as Crisp or Crispe. He was the son of Ellis Crisp who was Sheriff of London and died in 1625. He was the brother of Tobias CrispTobias Crisp
Tobias Crisp D.D. was an English clergyman and reputed antinomian. In the end he proved a divisive figure for English Calvinists, with a serious controversy arising from the republication of his works in the 1690s.-Life:...
, a prominent cleric and antinomian.
Crisp made money from brickworks in Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
then invested in other trade. Crisp’s main commercial interests were in the trades to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. Like his father he was a substantial stockholder in the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, and throughout his twenties he imported a wide variety of commodities, including cloves, indigo
Indigo
Indigo is a color named after the purple dye derived from the plant Indigofera tinctoria and related species. The color is placed on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet...
, silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
s, pepper
Black pepper
Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...
, elephant tusks
Ivory
Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...
, calicoes, and shells. The shells were specially purchased on his behalf by the company’s agents and it is thought that they were used to finance the purchase of slaves in west Africa.
Guinea Company
The Company of Adventurers of London trading to the ports of Africa, or more commonly known as “The Guinea Company” was the first private company to colonize Africa for profit. They were a trading company primarily exporting redwood (used for dyes) from the western parts of Africa, mostly through GuineaGuinea
Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
and Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
. At their height, the Guinea Company owned and operated 15 cargo ships.
James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
granted the company a 31 year monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
on the exportation of goods from West Africa to be imported into England. In 1624 Parliament declared the Guinea Company’s monopoly a grievance, despite the company suffering from financial difficulties. However, it was not until seven years after being founded and a year after parliament’s opposition when Nicholas Crisp became the principal organizer and profiteer in 1625. With this new found success, it also brought along a more resounding impression of objection from England. The Guinea Company had a great deal of growth with Nicholas Crisp, who had become the primary stock holder and benefactor in 1628.
Nicholas Crisp got most of his royalist support through the building of trading forts on the Gold Coast
Gold Coast (British colony)
The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa that became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957.-Overview:The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial...
of Komenda and Kormantin, which the King, James I, saw them as a great value to future of England/Africa trade.
The Guinea Company had touched on many different trades, one of which was gold, which in the beginning was its primary objective. Yet, the Guinea Company was not to succeed through this trade. From the years 1618 to 1621, 3 expeditions were made up the Gambia River to collect gold, as it was thought that there was much gold to be found. No profits were made, and after the third trip the company accumulated a loss of ₤5,600, which was a great deal of money during this era as Nicholas Crisp had purchased the majority of the company’s shares for less than ₤800. After Nicholas Crisp had failed in leading the company in finding gold along the Gambia River, they resorted to the collection of Redwood from Sierra Leone as their main export.
In 1631 a new charter was formed and granted to the “Company of Merchants Trading to Guinea”. Like the first charter in 1618, this too was for 31 years, but it was from Cape Blanco to the Cape of Good Hope. While it may seem to outsiders as a completely new trading company, it was not. Much of the members were in fact associated with The Guinea Company, including Nicholas Crisp. By creating a new name for themselves, it gave them more opportunities in expanding their industry, particularly in the Eastern part of Sierra Leone as a means for gathering gold. In 1632 gold factories were made in Komenda, Kormantin, and Winneba. Three additional factories soon followed: Anomabu, Takoradi, and Cabo Corso. Along with gold as the main source of income, ships were sent east to Benin to retrieve cloth where it would be brought back and sold for gold. It is estimated that Nicholas Crisp and his company made a profit of over ₤500,000 through the gold they had collected within the 11–12 years after 1632.
According to British parliamentary records, the company also appears to have been involved in the trade of enslaved Africans.
A sizeable assemblage of early-17th century glass beads and ‘wasters’ were discovered in association with a brick furnace in the grounds of the private estate of Sir Nicholas Crisp (on what is now Hammersmith Embankment) during excavation in 2005. Crisp had a patent for making and vending beads and he also obtained a patent for slave trading from Guinea to the West Indies. These beads were probably used for both the local and colonial markets as researchers have uncovered similar beads in the Americas and in Ghana. This is the first clear archaeological evidence for the manufacture of early post-medieval glass beads in England.
Other members of the Crisp family were also involved in the African trade, sometimes in a significant way, over the same period.
Elected to the Long Parliament
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...
he was expelled in 1641 for collecting duties on merchandise which he used as security to loan money to the cash-strapped King Charles I without the authorization of Parliament.
On New Year’s Day 1640, Charles knighted Crisp, recognising his past services, but perhaps more importantly, anticipating his further services.
Civil War
Despite his loyalties to the King, who had fled to Oxford on the outbreak of Civil War, Crisp remained in RoundheadRoundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
-controlled London. However he was questioned by the House of Commons in January 1643 about £3,700, which an intercepted letter revealed as owed to him ‘for secrett service done for his Majestie’. He promptly slipped away to Oxford, where he was warmly welcomed by the King, but his houses in Hammersmith and Lime Street
Lime Street
Lime Street is an American action/drama series that aired on the ABC television network during the 1985 television season. The series was created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who also served as executive producer alongside husband Harry Thomason and series star Robert Wagner.-Synopsis:The cast of...
were ransacked.
Crisp was forced by Parliament to surrender his patents for making and vending beads and for slave trading from Guinea to the West Indies. An order relating to a debt owed by Sir Nicholas Crisp to the Navy was laid before the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
in December 1643. The House of Commons of England
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...
had ordered that Crisp's share in the Guinea Company, his trading venture to Africa, should be used to cover this debt. The arrival of gold from this adventure now prompted the House of Lords to confirm that Crisp's share in this should be used to pay off the debt.
Crisp ’s supported the King in a number of ways throughout the Civil War. He was at the centre of a plan in March 1643 to head a force to take over London, but the idea failed. He was also frustrated in his attempts to raise an infantry regiment of 1,500 later that year.
However on 6 May 1644, he was commissioned to equip 15 warships at his own and his partner’s expense and granted a tenth of any prizes taken by them. Operating from west country ports, he ferried troops from Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and played an important role in shipping tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
and wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
to the continent. He would also bring back arms and ammunition as a return cargo, and ultimately held the important position of deputy controller-general of posts. His allegiance to the crown was steadfast, even after Charles I was executed in 1649 and he was forced to flee to France like many others. Family connections allowed him to return but his politics had not changed in the least and in the run up to the Restoration, Crisp performed secret services and raised money for exiled Charles II. He was among those London Royalists who signed the declaration in support of General Monk to restore the Stuart monarchy. He was also involved in clandestine support for royalist conspiracies, such as the abortive plot of 1650 to land forces from the Scillies on the Cornish coast.
In May 1660 Crisp was one of the committee sent to meet Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
at Breda
Breda
Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was of strategic military and political significance...
as he returned to England to take to the throne his father had vacated.
Later life
Once the monarchy was restoredEnglish Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
he was paid back in part for all he had lost defending the Crown. The King also appointed him to a number of prominent offices to make up the deficit. He tried to regain his former trading position, but was unsuccessful, though his membership of the Company of Adventurers did give him some influence on the trade.
He was mentioned in Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
' diary on 11 February 1660; 25 January, 15 and 19 February, 5 September 1662; and 22 August 1663. Pepys notes his inventiveness and mentions his proposals for a wet-dock.
In 1665 Charles II honoured his loyal servant by creating him a baronet.
He died 26 February 1666 (O.S.) aged 67.
Legacy
In his will he directed that his monument should record that he had lost ‘out of purse about a Hundred Thousand pounds’ by his pioneering efforts in the Guinea trade. He was buried in the church of St Mildred, Bread StreetSt Mildred, Bread Street
St Mildred Bread Street was a church in Bread Street Ward of the City of London dedicated to the 7th century Saint Mildred the Virgin, daughter of Merewald, sub-king of the West Mercians and one of the few to retain Wren's original fittings into the 20th Century.The earliest record of the church...
in east London, but:
"...he directed that his embalmed heart should be placed in an urn beneath a bronze bust of Charles I which in his lifetime he had placed in the Church where he had worshipped God … For a century and a half the heart was taken out on the anniversary of its burial and refreshed with wine. It then became ‘dust to dust’, but the memory of old Sir Nicholas, the marble monument and the King’s bust will long survive it.”
He was a great benefactor to the borough of Hammersmith, supporting the building of Hammersmith’s first church, that later became St Paul’s, supplying both money and bricks. The memorial to Crisp was transferred to the newer church, which was built on the same site in 1883. On June 18, 1898, his remains and his heart were reunited in a chest tomb which stands in the churchyard of St Paul's by the north-east door of the church.
Crisp was a sitter in a portrait by Robert Hartley Cromek but the date, 1795, is too late to be original, it is copied from an earlier portrait by an unknown artist.
Crisp was also responsible for building Brandenburgh House in Fulham Palace Road. Originally named the "Great House" by Crisp, this impressive residence was later the home of King George IV’s estranged wife Queen Caroline
Caroline of Brunswick
Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was the Queen consort of King George IV of the United Kingdom from 29 January 1820 until her death...
.
There is a Crisp Road in Hammersmith named after him.