John Slany, Slaney or Slanie, etc. (died 1632),Will of John Slany, Merchant Taylor of London (P.C.C. 1632, Audley quire). was an English merchant and ship builder of Shropshire origins who became Master of the Merchant Taylor's Company in 1620, and was the first and only Treasurer (principal officer) of the Newfoundland Company, chartered in 1610.K.R. Andrews, Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480-1630 (Cambridge University Press 1984), pp. 334, 336 (Google), citing G.T. Cell, English Enterprise in Newfoundland 1577–1660 (University of Toronto Press, 1969), pp. 61-79.
Family background The Slaney family, long established in Shropshire, flourished during the later 16th century, when (Sir) Stephen Slaney (1524-1608), citizen and Skinner of London and Merchant Adventurer, became four times Master of the Worshipful Company of Skinners, and rose to be Lord Mayor of London in 1595-1596. Stephen was a son of John Slaney of Mitton, Penkridge, in Staffordshire, and grandson of Ralph Slaney of Yardley, Warwickshire. Stephen had brothers, of whom William died before 1598, and Henry survived after 1608. He is also credited with a brother John,G. Grazebrook and J.P. Rylands (eds), The Visitation of Shropshire, Taken in the Year 1623, by Robert Tresswell and Augustine Vincent, with additions, Harleian Society, 2 vols XXVIII-XXIX (1889), II, p. 438 (Internet Archive). and another named Humphrey is mentioned by Burke.'Slaney of Hatton Bridge (Lineage)', in J. Burke and B. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain, 2 vols (Henry Colburn, London 1846), II, pp. 1245-46 (Google).
John Slaney was born (possibly during the 1560s) at Barrow, Shropshire, near to where the family held a farm estate called "The Hem" at Linley, south of Broseley. There were three brothers, Richard, John and Humphrey, and several sisters: from the wills of Richard and John, and other evidences, it seems clear they were nephews of Sir Stephen Slaney, but from which of his brothers they were the sons is not certain. Richard Slaney, gent., was in possession of "The Hem" at his death in 1620, and had several children: his sons Richard and John were London merchants.Will of Richard Slany of The Hem, Salop, Gent (P.C.C. 1620, Soame quire). Richard's brothers John and Humphrey joined the family mercantile enterprise, John becoming free of the Merchant Taylors and Humphrey of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers.
Career John Slaney was presented to the Merchant Taylors by William Atkins on 1 December 1593,C.M. Clode, The Early History of the Guild of Merchant Taylors of the Fraternity of St. John the Baptist, London, 2 vols (Harrison and Sons, London 1888), II, p. 345 (Internet Archive). and was married on 15 January 1593/94, at St Martin Pomary, Ironmonger Lane in the City of London, to Margery Brodgat.Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1539-1812, London Metropolitan Archives ref. P69/MTN4/A/001/MS04392, Microfilm image 9; through to the burial of Margery on 6 July 1597. Margery was probably a near kinswoman of Alderman Richard Brodgate, Skinner (died 1589),Will of Richard Brodgate, Skinner of London (P.C.C. 1589, Leicester quire). the first husband of Sir Stephen's daughter Mary Slaney (who afterwards married Sir Humphrey Weld).E.H.H., 'Slany, Bradgate and Weld', in J.J. Howard (ed.), Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, 2nd Series, III (Mitchell & Hughes, London 1890), p. 328 (Google). John and Margery had two sons, John (baptized 14 February, buried 15 February 1594/95) and Thomas (baptized 11 April, buried 12 April 1596), and a daughter Mary (baptized 7 June 1597), before Margery succumbed and was buried at St Martin Pomary in July 1597. In his will of 1632 John asked to be buried in that church near where his wife and two sons were lying. On 24 March 1597/98, he remarried at St Olave's Church, Hart Street, to Elizabeth, widow of Erasmus Harbye, Skinner, of St Michael's, Cornhill.J.L. Chester, ed. G.J. Armytage, Allegations for Marriage Licences Issued by the Bishop of London, 1520-1828, Harleian Society XXV-XXVI (1887), I, p. 248 (Internet Archive).
In 1598 John was in partnership with Sir Stephen Slaney and his son Jasper Slaney.Sir Stephen's eldest son, Stephen, although he had married, had already died. Through Humphrey Slaney, Jasper's agent and factor at Middelburg, they had arranged to ship large quantities of corn and rye from Zeeland to London on behalf of their kinsman Thomas Offley of London, who brought a suit against them for detention.The National Archives (UK), Chancery final decrees, Offley v Slaney, ref. C 78/112/14; view original at AALT, images 0011-0015. Humphrey's role as administrator is mentioned at the end the decree. By the end of 1598 Jasper Slaney had died, and Humphrey was appointed administrator of Jasper's estate.Index to Acts of Administration of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury IV: 1596–1608, British Record Society LXXXI (1964), p. 241. John, however, prospered, and in 1600 he purchased the manor called Marsh in his birth village of Barrow from Anne Hadnall and her husband Hampden Powlett.
In May 1601 Humphrey Slaney married Joan Weld, daughter of Sir Humphrey's brother John Weld, Haberdasher (died 1588).Will of John Weld, Haberdasher of St Mildred Poultry, City of London (P.C.C. 1588, Rutland quire). Some (at least) of Humphrey Slaney's children were christened and/or buried at St Martin Pomary between 1605 and 1616, and his wife Joan was buried there on 3 February 1630/31.Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1539-1812, London Metropolitan Archives ref. P69/MTN4/A/001/MS04392, sub anno. Although John Slaney was more conservative than his brother (who became a most audacious merchant engaged in trade to Spain, the Levant, Barbary and Guinea), John also invested in the East India Company. His wealth was evidently considerable. By 1605 Sir Percival Willoughby, whose inheritance of Wollaton Hall in Nottinghamshire placed him heavily in debt, had mortgaged his manor of Bore Place at Chiddingstone, near Sevenoaks, Kent, to John Slany.Cell, 'The Newfoundland Company', pp. 618-19, citing Middleton Papers (Report on the MSS of Lord Middleton preserved at Wollaton Hall, Notts, Historical Manuscripts Commission (London 1911), p. 284), refs. 5/162/56, 58, 62; 1/1/19; 2/713/42.
In 1605 John Slaney held the lease of a hall on the north side of Cornhill, between Bishopsgate Street and Finch Lane (in the City of London), and standing at the north end of Newman's Court. This adjoined the south-west corner of the Merchant Taylors' Hall premises (which fronted onto Threadneedle Street), and on its north side a small garden intersected awkwardly with their buildings. The Company had entered into a sub-lease with Slaney to extend, or "jet", their upper room called "The King's Chamber" over part of his garden, and for many years they negotiated with him to make it a freehold.H.L. Hopkinson, A History of the Site of the Merchant Taylors' Hall and Adjoining Premises (Riordan Press, Soho 1913), pp. 85-88 and Plan 2 (Internet Archive). In 1608 Sir Stephen Slaney died, his will (written in 1598) making John Slaney (son of his brother Henry) his heir male.Will of Stephen Slany, Alderman of Saint Swithin, City of London (P.C.C. 1609, Dorset quire). His widow Dame Margaret, making her will in 1612, named both John and Humphrey Slaney among her overseers.Will (1612) and Codicil (1618) of Dame Margaret Slanye, widow of St Swithin, City of London (P.C.C. 1619, Parker quire). Sir Humphrey Weld died in 1610, remembering his son John Weld (gent.) and his nephew John Weld (Esq), and leaving a garden at Moorfields to his niece Joan Slaney.Will of Sir Humphrey Weld, Alderman of the City of London (P.C.C. 1610, Wingfield quire).
Newfoundland Company
In 1608 the Mayor of Bristol considered a letter from Chief Justice Popham concerning the colonization of Newfoundland, which had become a British possession formally in 1583. John Guy, a leading merchant and common councilman of Bristol, having reformed the Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers, made a preliminary voyage to Newfoundland in that year and in 1609 he published a treatise to promote an English plantation there.A. Davidson, 'Guy, John (-d.1629), of Small Street, Bristol, Glos.', in A. Thrush and J.P. Ferris (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629 (Cambridge University Press 2010), History of Parliament Online. Issued in response to a petition by John Guy and John Slany to the Privy Council, the charter of incorporation granted by James I in April 1610 to the "Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London and Bristol for the Colony of Plantation in Newfound Land", granted to Henry, Earl of Northampton and others, named only 8 Bristol charter members but almost 40 from London.G.T. Cell, Newfoundland Discovered: English Attempts at Colonisation 1610-1630, Hakluyt Society, Series 2, CLX (1981). Of these the inner council of 12 were headed by Sir Percival Willoughby, and included among them Ralph Freeman, both John and Humphrey Slaney, and both John Weld, Esq. and John Weld, Gent.'Newfoundland Company', in C.T. Carr (ed.), Select Charters of Trading Companies, A.D. 1530-1707, Selden Society XXVIII (Bernard Quaritch, London 1913), pp. 51-62 (Internet Archive). John Slaney himself, who presumably drew in some of these, was named as Treasurer, with power to summon the Council, and so became the centre-pin of the London base of the Company.
A plantation company led by John Guy was, accordingly fitted out by the Company and arrived in Newfoundland in May 1610. Having chosen the site of Cuper's Cove, they spent the first winter building houses, stores, boats, and making other arrangements for the permanent continuation of the settlement. In May 1611, Guy (as governor of the colony) wrote a long account of their experiences and achievements to John Slany and the Council in London.'English Discoveries and Plantations in New England and New-Found-Land', in S. Purchas, Purchas his Pilgrimes. Part 4 In fiue bookes (Printed by William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, London 1625), Book 10, pp. 1827-1973, at pp. 1876-79, 1888. Full text at Umich/eebo (Search term: "Slany"). Guy returned to England leaving Master William Colston in charge, but went back for a project of exploration in June 1612, when he established connections with the native inhabitants and made a full record of their meetings, preserved in a letter of July 1612. Their relations were, however, disrupted by the assaults of the pirate Peter Easton, further details of which were described by Sir Richard Whitbourne.Purchas his Pilgrimes, p. 1883.Captain Richard Whitbourne, ed. T. Whitburn, Westward Hoe for Avalon in the New-found-land (Sampson Low, Son, and Marston, London 1870), p. 42 (Internet Archive). Reports of mineral resources in Newfoundland encouraged Sir Percival Willoughby, whose industrial interests lay in mining, to establish ownership of a tract of land near the colony.G.T. Cell, 'The Newfoundland Company: a study of subscribers to a colonizing venture', The William and Mary Quarterly (Journal of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture), Vol. 22 no 4 (October 1965), pp. 611-25.
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