Can this really be true?

Question

Preparing to write up this bio I came across this little gem of a story from Samuel Pepys.(I know he was an old gossip but he only gossiped to himself). The actual ID seems to have come from Henry B Wheatley. If true John must have been enslaved as a child or a youth. True the world he grew up in was chaotic, but........... I'd love to use it but I cannot find any corroboration, John was not notable. Anyone have any idea where I could look? It seems there was a repatriation scheme running at the time.

Comments

The footnote to this entry in the Harper Collins edition says "Many such stories are collected in E. de Aranda, relation de la captivité et liberté du sieur Emanuel d'Aranda... ( Brussels, 1662), of which Pepys retained John Davies' translation: The history of Algiers and it's slavery (1666; PL 754)."

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml

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If this John Dawes is the Putney Dawes then there is a lot of information here ( scroll to page 401 where it starts ).  

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7W4UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA403&lpg=PA403&dq=dawes+of+bocking,+essex&source=bl&ots=fHw_0-2fsU&sig=gA0hOsulkYbHbN9RpuiGpj1ZyU4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj70andorjfAhWpUhUIHa-9AboQ6AEwEXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=dawes%20of%20bocking%2C%20essex&f=false

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The translation of the 1662 book about Algeria and it's slavery can be read here:

http://downloads.it.ox.ac.uk/ota-public/tcp/Texts-HTML/free/A25/A25743.html

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I don't think John was a slave I think he just translated Emanuel d'Aranda's story and that they put 'Englished' where we would put translated.

Answer 1

He could have been a sailor, captured by Barbary pirates and sold as part of the trade in white slaves. Background reading here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_slave_trade

Comments

The footnote to the Harper Collins edition has his spouse as Christian Hawkins; "the marriage licence of John Dawes of St Olave's, Hart st ( bachelor aged 30 ) and Christian Hawkins ( spinster age 16 ) is dated 21 April 1663. It states that the bride's parents were dead and that consent had been given by her aunt, the wife of (Sir Andrew) Rickard of St Olave's " citing J.L. Chester "London Marriage licences" (ed.  Foster), col. 386.

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Who Christian was is another issue. I cannot find the source for the marriage online. DNB calls her Christian Hawkins, ODNB calls her Christian Lyons as does HOP. She subsequently married Sir Anthony Deane. In 1663 when the marriage took place John was about 19 years old. ODNB article on their son William, Archbishop of York, says he was born at Lyons (Lyons Hall, Braintree?) in Essex, presumably Christian's inheritance. Venn has John studying at Middle Temple around 1658 aged around 13, a time when hardly anyone was expecting a return of the monarchy. Pepys has him in London in 1661, released from captivity. such an interesting man.

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Sir Andrew Riccard's (Rickard) second wife was Susan or Susanna Bateman (Bateman-2626) and she would have been the aunt who gave permission in 1663.

Sir Andrew Riccard was an extremely wealthy merchant who made his money from the East India Company trade. I never got round to finishing Susanna's bio off while doing the England Project orphan trail as she was at the very edges of my Berkeley family (Barons of Stratton under King Charles II), being step grand-mother to 3 of the Barons. However from memory, she was wealthy in her own right and had links to a few ennobled families.

It's now on my to-do list to extend her tree, and see if we can find this Christian. Not to be confused with Christian Riccard, Sir Andrew's only surviving child from his first marriage and who married into the Berkeley family.

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Very interesting, very puzzling. Bateman doesn't help with ladies called Lyons, Dawes or Hawkins. Perhaps "aunt" is used more loosely. Possibly a great aunt, there's just about time.

Answer 2

Done some work on the profile. It is still sadly unclear whether this John Dawes was the same Mr Dawes who was a slave in Algiers.