Richard Carmarden

Richard Carmarden (died 1603) was an English merchant, member of the Merchant Taylors Company, and Surveyor of the Customs for London. He paid for the printing of the Bible in English in Rouen in 1566, and in 1570 wrote A Caveat for the Quene.

Richard Carmarden
Bornc.1536
Died1603
BuriedChislehurst, Kent
Spouse(s)Alice More
Mary Alington
Issue
Richard Carmarden
Nathaniel Carmarden
Mary Carmarden
FatherThomas Carmarden
MotherDorothy Alexander

Family

Richard Carmarden was the son of Thomas Carmarden and Dorothy Alexander, the daughter of Paul Alexander.[1]

Career

Carmarden is first heard of in 1566 when he funded the printing of an edition of the Great Bible in English at Rouen.[2][3] At an unknown date he became a member of the Company of Merchant Taylors.[4] In 1570 he wrote A Caveat for the Quene.[5][6]

In 1590, when the administration of the customs was reorganized after Thomas Smythe failed to negotiate a renewal of his patent to farm the customs, the London merchant Sir Thomas Middleton was appointed Receiver General of Customs Revenues, while the London alderman Henry Billingsley was made chief Customer of the Port of London.[7] The 'next most important officer' in London was Carmarden, who was appointed Surveyor of Customs. According to Newton, 'in order that he might hold a position of greater independence, Carmarden received out of the Receipt of the Exchequer £200 a year out of his whole salary of £256 13s 4d, the remainder, the traditional stipend of the surveyor, being defalked on the customs accounts'.[8]

As Surveyor of Customs one of his tasks was to search for foreign books being imported into the realm. In a letter written to Lord Burghley in 1597 Carmarden refers to the 'commandment unto me given charge and daily to all her Majesty’s waiters to look narrowly after all books that come into this port from foreign parts'.[4] Carmarden also on one occasion is recorded as having imported forty reams of printed books himself.[4]

During Thomas Smythe’s tenure as Customer, Carmarden had been frequently employed by Lord Burghley on special Exchequer commissions.[8] His relationship with the Lord Treasurer continued to be a close one after he was appointed Surveyor of Customs; during the 1590s he was in frequent correspondence with both Lord Burghley and with his son, Sir Robert Cecil.[9] On at least one occasion Carmarden's advice was even sought by the Queen herself, to whom he recommended the best means of making sale of the large amount of pepper which had formed part of the rich cargo of the carrack Madre de Dios,[10] captured off the Azores on 3 August 1592.[11]

In 1595 Carmarden was embroiled in a controversy with the London mercer William Leveson. Carmarden's officers had confiscated certain packs belonging to Leveson, whereupon Leveson and others beat Carmarden's officers and uttered 'wild words' against the Queen's authority. Upon Carmarden's complaint, Leveson was imprisoned, but released after begging pardon and paying costs.[12]

Church of St Nicholas, Chislehurst, where Richard Carmarden was buried

Carmarden's exercise of his office as Surveyor of the Customs was criticized by others besides Leveson; a contemporary manuscript is described as 'A Brief, listing a series of complaints against Richard Carmarden of London, Surveyor of the Customs to Queen Elizabeth, and the damage caused by his misbehavior to shipping, trade, and receipt of customs'.[13]

On 1 August 1596 Richard Carmarden, described as 'Robert Cecil's man', consulted the astrologer and herbalist Simon Foreman.[14]

Carmarden died in 1603 and was buried in the Church of St Nicholas at Chislehurst, Kent, where there is a memorial to him stating that he was aged sixty-seven at his death. In the same church are memorials to his first wife, Alice More, who died in 1586 at the age of forty-two, and to Carmarden's son-in-law, Thomas Wigg (d.1602), who married Carmarden's daughter, Mary.[15]

Marriages and issue

Carmarden married firstly Alice More, the daughter and coheir of William More of Odiham, Surrey, by whom he had two sons, Richard Carmarden and Nathaniel Carmarden, and a daughter, Mary Carmarden, who married Thomas Wigg (d.1602).[16] Carmarden's son Richard entered Gray's Inn on 4 March 1599,[17] and succeeded his father as Surveyor of the Customs.[1]

Carmarden married secondly Mary Alington.[1]

Notes
  1. Howard & Chester 1880, p. 136.
  2. Clarke 1819, p. 114; Barnard & McKenzie 2002, p. 150; Davis 2013, p. 126.
  3. Book of Kings, King of Books: Early Printed Bibles from the Carothers Collection Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  4. Barnard & McKenzie 2002, p. 150.
  5. Richard Carmarden’s A Caveat for the Quene, 1570 Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  6. The original was formerly in the collection of Hiram Halle.
  7. Newton 1918, p. 140.
  8. Newton 1918, p. 141.
  9. Historical Manuscripts Commission 1899, p. 578.
  10. 'Cecil Papers: March 1593', Calendar of the Cecil Papers in Hatfield House, Volume 4: 1590-1594 (1892), pp. 290-299 Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  11. Latham & Youings 1999, p. 78.
  12. Hotson 1937, pp. 162–3; Honigmann 1998, p. 88.
  13. A Guide to the Atcheson L. Hench Autograph Collection, University of Virginia Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  14. The Casebooks Project; A digital edition of Simon Forman’s & Richard Napier’s medical records 1596–1634 Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  15. Hasted 1797, p. 17.
  16. Howard & Chester 1880, p. 136; Hasted 1797, p. 17.
  17. Foster 1880, p. 96.

References
  • Barnard, John; McKenzie, D.F., eds. (2002). The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain. IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 150–1. ISBN 9780521661829. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  • Clarke, William (1819). Repertorium Bibliographicum; Or Some Account of the Most Celebrated British Libraries. I. London: William Clarke. p. 114. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  • Davis, David J. (2013). Seeing Faith, Printing Pictures; Religious Identity During the English Reformation. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV. p. 126. ISBN 978-9004236011. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  • Foster, Joseph (1880). The Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521-1889. London: Hansard Publishing Union Limited. p. 96.
  • Hasted, Edward (1797). The History and Topographical survey of the County of Kent. II. Canterbury: W. Bristow. pp. 16–18. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  • Historical Manuscripts Commission (1899). Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Honourable Marquis of Salisbury, Part VII. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. pp. 4, 7, 12, 40, 53, 56, 248, 268, 368, 545. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  • Hotson, Leslie (1937). I, William Shakespeare Do Appoint Thomas Russell Esquire…. London: Jonathan Cape. pp. 162–3.
  • Honigmann, E.A.J. (1998). Shakespeare: The 'Lost Years'. Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp. 84–9. ISBN 9780719054259. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  • Howard, Joseph Jackson; Chester, Joseph Lemuel (1880). The Visitation of London Anno Domini 1633, 1634, and 1635, Vol. I. XV. London: Harleian Society. p. 136. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  • Latham, Agnes; Youings, Joyce, eds. (1999). The Letters of Sir Walter Raleigh. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. p. 78.
  • Newton, A.P. (1918). "The Establishment of the Great Farm of the English Customs". Transactions of the Royal History Society. 4th. London: Royal Historical Society. pp. 129–156. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
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