Anthony Parkhurst
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Anthony Parkhurst was an English explorer and promoter of the 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.
Background
Parkhurst's date of birth is unknown, but given that he was in diplomatic service in Madrid by the mid 1560s, it seems unlikely he was born later than 1540 and may have been older. David Beers Quinn suggests he may have been the son of the gentleman John Parkhurst of East Lenham, Kent.[1]
Hawkins Slaving Voyage, 1564-5
By 1564 Anthony Parkhurst was in the service of Sir Thomas Chaloner (English Ambassador in Madrid, 1561-64). In July 1564 Challoner received a request from the English mariner John Hawkins to recommend an interpreter he might employ.[2] This was to accompany a state-sponsored slaving expedition down the coast of Africa, with the intention of selling the enslaved people to the Spanish colonists in America. Hawkins presumably wanted an interpreter with good Spanish and diplomatic skills to help negotiate with the colonial authorities in America. Chaloner recommended Parkhurst in a letter of 5 July 1564, which Parkhurst then carried back to England.[2]
The participation of Anthony Parkhurst, gentleman, in Hawkins voyage of 1564-5 is noted in a later report of this Crown-backed slaving voyage.[3] The four-ship expedition left Plymouth in England on 18 October 1564, reaching West Africa by December-January. There Hawkins raided for slaves directly, while also buying enslaved people from Portuguese traders. He then sailed across to Venezuela, Hispaniola and other Spanish possessions, selling enslaved Africans and other goods to the Spanish colonists. Although the colonists were keen to buy the slaves, this was against Spanish law. So Hawkins had to engage with some difficult negotiations with Spanish colonial governors to persuade them to buy. Parkhurst presumably helped here. The expedition returned home in July 1565 via Newfoundland, where they took fish to provision the ships.[4] It was here that Parkhurst would have learnt first-hand about the resources around the island. The fleet returned to Cornwall in September 1565.
It is not known whether Parkhurst sailed with Hawkins or took part in any other overseas expeditions in over the next eight years.
Anthony Parkhurst is next mentioned in official records in the acts of Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council on 7 June 1573. In the hope of alleviating a family quarrel, the Justices of Assize in Kent were instructed to attempt 'to make an agrement betwixt Anthony Parkehurst and his father that meaneth to disinherit him'.[5]
Newfoundland
According to Quinn, following Parkhurst's argument with his father, 'he moved to Bristol and set up as a merchant'.[1] From c.1575-8, Parkhurst engaged in summer fishing expeditions to Newfoundland, while also engaging in undertaking extensive surveys of the harbours, the land and the maritime resources around the island. In 1577-8 he wrote a letter to senior figure he had met while at court, setting out as case for the colonisation of Newfoundland by the English.[6]
On 13 November 1578, Parkhurst wrote a letter to Richard Hakluyt the elder, the cousin and guardian of the younger Richard Hakluyt, who would go on to be the leading historian and promoter of early English discovery voyages. This letter would later be published in 1589 in Hakluyt's key work, Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques And Discoveries Of The English Nation.[7] Parkhurst's long letter provided detailed information about the nature of the European fishery around Newfoundland, as practiced by the English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, including estimates of the number of ships involved and their size. Parkhurst also provided much information about the island and in its resources. He claims to have explored 'the harbors, creekes and havens, and also the land much more then ever any Englishman hath done'. He had even experimented with planting various food crops, such as wheat, barley and peas, to prove that they could grow in the soil there.
Parkhurst's two letters are regarded as the most important sources on the early English fishery in Newfoundland, which had, according to him, increased from just 3-4 vessels in the early 1570s to 50 vessels by 1578.[8] Prof Quinn characterised him as 'An intelligent and well-informed commentator, he was, with Edward Hayes, Newfoundland’s most important early publicist.'[1]
Parkhurst's 1578 voyage had incurred losses, apparently because salt deliveries he expected to receive from Portuguese fishermen did not materialise. Large quantities of salt was need to cure the codfish before returning home.
It is not known whether Parkhurst engaged in further voyages, but in 1583 wrote a 'commendation', in verse, in praise of of Sir George Peckham’s A True Reporte of the late discoveries, and possession...of the Newfound Landes.[9]
Life after 1583
Historians have found no further records concerning Parkhurst after 1583. The nature and time of his death is unknown.
References
- ^ a b c Quinn, David Beers (1966). "PARKHURST, ANTHONY, merchant, explorer, and advocate of English settlement in Newfoundland; fl. 1561–83.". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 1. University of Toronto / Université Laval.
- ^ a b Stevenson, Joseph, ed. (1870). Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Reign of Elizabeth: 1564-1565. London: Longman & co. p. 171.
- ^ Hakluyt, Richard (1589). Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques And Discoveries Of The English Nation. p. 63.
- ^ Hakluyt, Richard (1589). Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques And Discoveries Of The English Nation. pp. 9–63.
- ^ Acts of the Privy Council of England: 1571-1575. p. 111.
- ^ Taylor, Eva G. R., ed. (1935). The original writings and correspondence of the two Richard Hakluyts. London: Hakluyt Society. pp. 123–127.
- ^ Hakluyt, Richard (1589). Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques And Discoveries Of The English Nation. pp. 9–16.
- ^ Cell, Gillian T. (1969). English Enterprise in Newfoundland 1577-1660. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 22–23.
- ^ Quinn, David B. (1939). The Voyages and Colonising Enterprises of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. The Hakluyt Society. p. 441.