Chap. VI. OF THE had a stock of energy. He had also the prospect of ac- BOOK I, quiring a good standpoint at Court, in addition to his T present possession of a good good training in the mysteries of FOUNDERS English law. He was ready to devote all his energies to SLOANE the business, and to encounter at once with the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch Republic, the Government of Barbadoes, and a host of adversaries at home. There had, however, been no Commission of Bankruptcy. It was necessary that the battle should be fought as well in the name of the heir and representative of the family, as in the name of the collective body of creditors. CAREW used COURTEN'S name and used it, as it appears, for some years without authority from the legal guardian. COURTEN himself did not become of age until 1663. The Restoration was hardly effected before CAREW besieged the King and the Courts with Petitions, Memorials, Claims, and Bills of Plaint. He would lose nothing for lack of asking. And he was undeterred by difficulties or rebuffs. MUSEUM. DOES CLAIM. The case of Barbadoes was thus put before the Committee THE BARBAof the Privy Council for America :— 'COURTEN claims the whole island of Barbadoes; and, more particularly, the Corn Plantation, the Indian Bridge Plantation, the Fort Plantation, the Indian Plantation eastwards, and Powell's plantation. Sir William COURTEN's ships discovered the island in the year 1626, and left fifty people there. Captain Henry POWELL landed there in February, 1627, built [houses] for COURTEN's colony, and left more than forty inhabitants there. John POWELL erected Plantation Fort, and remained until he was surprised in 1628 by a force under Charles WOLVERTON, by which the fort was captured. In 1629, Sir William COURTEN sent eighty men with arms, in the Peter and John,' and they retook 37,99 42. Colonial Correspond ence, vol. xiv, §§ 39.42. BOOK I, THE FOUNDERS OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM. the fort in the name of the Earl of PEMBROKE, Trustee for COURTEN, according to the royal grant.' And then the Petition recites the recapture, under the conflicting Patent of the Earl of Carlisle, as I have described it already. In There is, of course, no foundation for the statement that Barbadoes was discovered' by the ships of COURTEN. other respects, the details here set forth appear to be sustained by the evidence. In order to the recovery of the debt from the Crown, CAREW suggested, in another petition, and quite in the fashion of the day, that the Petitioners should have 'leave to raise the money' due to the COURTEN Estate from the estates of John LISLE, Thomas SCOTT, Thomas ANDREWS, vol XX, 77; and others, concerned in the murder of the late King. In Domestic Corresp., Charles II, xx, § and xlviii, § 48. THE CASE OF a third petition, he prayed that 'a blank warrant for the dignity of a baronet' might be granted, in order to sell it to the best bidder, and to apply the proceeds in partial satisfaction of the debt. But it was to the prosecution of the claim upon the Dutch INDIA SHIPS. Republic for the unwarranted seizure, in 1643, of the rich ships of the East India Fleet that CAREW devoted his best energies. The damages were put at £163,400. The main facts of the case were fully substantiated. And a royal letter was addressed to the States General on the 21st of March, 1662, claiming full satisfaction. A Memorial was delivered at the Hague in the April following, by the English Ambassador, Sir George DownING, in which, after a general statement of the case at issue, he went on to say: Whereas it may seem strange that this matter may be set on foot at this time, whereas in the year 1654 Commissioners were sent to England who did end several matters relating to the East Indies, and whereas in the year 1659 several matters of a fresher date were also Chap. VI. FOUNDERS OF THE MUSEUM. ended, and thereby a period put to all other matters of dif- BOOK I, ference which had happened about the same time, and were THE known in Europe before the 20th of January in the same year, it is to be considered that the persons interested in SLOAN these ships were such as, for their singular and extraordinary activity to His Majesty, .. father to the King my master, were rendered incapable of obtaining or pursuing their just rights, at home or abroad. And upon that Memorial account it is that the business of the two ships remains yet in dispute, though several matters of a much fresher date have been ended.' When these proceedings were initiated by Sir George DOWNING at the Hague, COURTEN himself was still in his minority. But it is probable that he had already returned to England. COURTEN's first personal appearance upon the scene was also made in the way of presenting a petition to the King. In July 1663, he thus alleged that the steps which had been taken were without his concurrence or knowledge, delivered to the States the Hague, General, at 19 April, 1662. 3515. and, as is feared, with intention to deprive him of his Ms. Sloane, claims.' The King referred the petition to Sir Geoffrey PALMER, who pronounced in COURTEN's favour. His position was one of great embarrassment. Some of his family connexions had already suffered much annoyance from litigation about the COURTEN Estates at home, and were little inclined to incur further risk or trouble on behalf of a relative whose inheritance was certain to yield abundance of immediate vexation and anxiety, and very uncertain in respect to its prospects of any better harvest in THE the end. He was advised to sell the remnant of his entailed BETWEEN estates, to put the product of the sale out of danger from any adverse issue of pending claims, and to come to terms 1663. AGREEMENT COURTEN BOOK I, OF THE SLOANE with CAREW for the prosecution of the latter-or of some In accordance with this of them on a joint account. FOUNDERS advice, an agreement was made, in the course of 1663, by which CAREW was empowered to pursue the claims against the Netherlands, as well on COURTEN's behalf as on his own and that of other creditors. The remaining landed estates in Worcestershire and other counties or nearly all that remained of them—were sold, and a life income was secured. For the next half dozen years COURTEN's life was almost that of a recluse, save that such activities as it admitted of were devoted almost exclusively to the study of antiquities and of the natural sciences. A great part of those years was passed at Fawsley with his aunt, Lady KNIGHTLEY, one of the few relatives whose affection stood the proof of adversity. There are several reasons for thinking that the rudimentary foundation of COURTEN'S Museum had been laid as early as in the time of his grandfather, Sir William, whose mercantile and colonial enterprises presented so many opportunities for bringing into England the more curious productions of remote countries, as well as their merchandise. Be that as it may, the collection of a museum which should eclipse everything of its kind theretofore known in England became, from his attainment of manhood, the leading aim and object of William COURTEN's career. It was to him both an ambition and a solace. The other of the two men who thus came into brief contact in 1663 lived a life as different from COURTen's as can well be conceived. CAREW seems to have been a glutton in his appetite for contention. And the Dutchmen, as Indische Com- far as they were concerned, put no stint upon its indulgence. There was also ample time for it. Treaty followed by war, Pretentien tegens d'Oost pagnie, &c. (B. M.) Chap. VI. THE FOUNDERS OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM. and war leading to renewed treaty, kept the affair of the BOOK 1, Bona Esperanza and the Henry Bon-Adventure both in T active historical memory, and in full legal vigour. Towards the close of 1662 it had been covenanted by the English government, as a necessary condition of a good understanding between the two Powers, that there should be a prompt satisfaction of damages. The Treaty of Commerce of that year was tossed to and fro on that one point of the COURTEN ships with more obstinate pertinacity than on any other. To the intrinsic merits of the claim, in the main, there was really no answer. To the legal technicalities by which its settlement, if left to Dutch courts of judicature, could be indefinitely protracted, there was no end. When THE CLAIMS letters of dismissal had been already drawn at Whitehall for the Dutch envoys of 1662, because they insisted on a clause extinguishing all outstanding claims on both sides; they skilfully contrived to substitute leave to litigate* for a proviso to satisfy. And the event justified their fore cast. IN HOLLAND. Domestic vol. cxiii, §143. During the year 1665, Letters of Marque and Reprisal Corresp were granted to CAREW and his associates, and a special Charles II, clause of continuance until the full recovery of debt and damages, notwithstanding the conclusion of any subsequent Treaty of Peace was inserted. This was done after an elaborate argument before the Lord Chancellor CLARENSeveral ships were taken by CAREW's cruisers, but they were nearly all claimed by Hamburghers, Swedes, and DON. * Hoc excepto quod scilicet qui se jacturam passos dicunt in duabus navibus poterunt litem inceptam prosequi.'-Treaty of Commerce of 1662. † After elaborate inquiries in the Admiralty Court the losses were certified as amounting to £151,612; and that assessment was adopted in a subsequent Commission under the Great Seal. |