Poole’s Maritime History, Timeline: 1565 to 1732

Featuring:

Important events that set the context for Poole’s development, especially in England, Europe and Newfoundland;

Key dates and events in the lives of the featured three mariners; Button, Bennett and Rogers; and

Periods of hostility and war in England and elsewhere; developments in Poole; and in the economic condition. (See banners across the page)

• 1565

  Thomas Button is Born

  

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• 1568

  Elizabeth I grants charter to Poole

  

  Town and County of Poole created (including Admiral and Admiral’s Court); one of only 16 such locations in the country.

• 1574

  Just 1373 people lived in Poole.

• 1577

  French and Spanish piracy troubling Elizabeth’s diplomacy

• 1578

  Elizabeth I appoints Commissioners to deal with problems in Poole’s waters – Mayor, recorder and four others

  Francis Rogers of Poole implicated in piracy; brother Sir Richard Rogers protects him.

• 1580

  Drake returns to Plymouth after circumnavigation of world

• 1581

  43 pirate vessels seized by Royal Navy ships off Dorset

• 1583

  Gilbert claims Newfoundland

  for Queen Elizabeth I

  

  Nine pirates hanged on Studland beach

• 1584

  Sir Walter Raleigh founds Virginia

  

• 1613

  Button returns to England

  

• 1614

  Mainwaring (English Barbary pirate) raids Newfoundland fishery

• 1615

  Coal: a cheaper substitute for firewood

• 1616

  Button knighted

• 1618

  Calvert attempts settlement in Avalon, Newfoundland

• 1620

  Button sails in Algiers raid

  Pilgrim Fathers’ Mayflower arrives at Cape Cod

  Poole has four Inns, 18 alehouses

• 1624

  Tobacco gains popularity

• 1625

  James I dies; Charles I crowned

  

• 1626

  Poole’s first pipe clay coastal shipping recorded

• 1630

  England makes peace with France and Spain

  

• 1632

  ‘Fame’ wrecked in Swash Channel

  

• 1634

  Button dies (68)

  Charles I re-introduces Ship Money taxes to support the national defences

• 1640

  Massachusetts Bay colonists grow rich on cod fishing

• 1641

  First sugar factory built in Barbados

• 1642

  Poole takes the side of Parliament in the civil wars

• 1643

  Royalists attack Poole but are defeated

• 1644

  Battle of Marston Moor; victory for Oliver Cromwell

  

• 1645

  Henry Harding’s perambulation – The ‘Beating’ of the Bounds Ceremony in Poole

• 1649

  Charles I beheaded

  

• 1651

  English civil wars end

• 1653

  Oliver Cromwell proclaimed Lord Protector

  

  George Fox founder of Quakers visits Poole, several merchants are Quakers
  

  

  Rum instituted aboard warships to replace beer

• 1656

  War between England and Spain

• 1660

  Poole’s Coastal shipping grows

  Charles II and the monarchy restored

• 1665

  English fishery processing described by Yonge

  Black Death strikes and 60,000 Londoners die

• 1666

  ‘The Great Fire of London’

• 1670

  Settlement accepted in Newfoundland

  Growth in demand for Poole’s clay, from London by sea

  John Bennett born in Poole

  

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• 1672

  Royal Company founded by England to exploit African slave trade

  

• 1676

  Slaves purchased in Africa, sold for 10 times as much in America

• 1679

  Woodes Rogers is born

  

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• 1684

  ‘The word America’ appears in writing for the first time

• 1685

  Charles II dies

• 1688

  The Glorious Revolution’ William of Orange sent for, to be king

  Elizabeth Hyde and her husband pass messages between Mary in the Hague and Prince William of Orange in north Dorset on his march to London

• 1690

  Rogers family moves to Bristol
  
  Dramatic rise in New World Piracy

• 1691

  Bennett family moves to Barking

• 1694

  Peter Jolliffe receives gold medal from King for capture of French privateer
  
  Bank of England chartered

  

• 1695

  William Thompson also gets gold medal
  
  Bennett sails to Virginia

• 1698

  Sir Peter Thompson born (died 1770)

  Parliament opens the slave trade to British merchants

• 1700

  Death of Carlos II, king of Spain, causes war of the Spanish Succession

• 1701

  Pirate William Kidd hanged in London

  

• 1702

  Death of William II; succeeded by Queen Anne, last monarch of the House of Stuart.

• 1704

  British forces capture Gibraltar.
  
  87 High Street built.

• 1707

  England and Scotland united to form Great Britain

• 1708

  Bennett sails to Archangel, Russia. Rogers sets off around the world

• 1711

  Rogers returns a national hero.
  
  British troops attack French in Canada

• 1712

  Bennett sails in the Cape.

• 1713

  Treaty of Utrecht declared, Newfoundland becomes a British colony.

• 1714

  Death of Queen Anne; King George I crowned

• 1715

  Death of Louis XIV of France

• 1717

  John Bennett dies at age 47

• 1718

  Bank of England issues Bank notes.

  Rogers sets off for Nassau with 150 men at arms

• 1719

  Edward Teach ‘Blackbeard’ killed in North Carolina

• 1721

  Rogers returns penniless from the Bahamas

• 1726

  The first school established in Newfoundland

• 1727

  End of Piracy’s ‘Golden Age’
  
  Quakers object to slave trade

• 1728

  Rogers goes out again to Bahamas as Royal Governor

• 1732

  Rogers dies aged 53 in New Providence Nassau, Bahamas.