21 Facts About Matthew Cradock

Matthew Cradock was a London merchant, politician, and the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company.

Matthew Cradock was a dominant figure in the tobacco trade.

Matthew Cradock was a strong supporter of the Parliamentary cause in the years leading up to the English Civil War.

Matthew Cradock opposed royalist conservatism in the East India Company and, as a member of the Long Parliament, supported the Root and Branch attempts to radically reform the Church of England.

Matthew Cradock played a leading role in the Protestation of 1641, and died not long after.

Matthew Cradock probably began trading with northwestern Europe, but eventually expanded his business to the Near East.

Matthew Cradock used his business and personal connections to establish a lucrative trade, shipping New World tobacco to the Near East and sending provisions to the colonies in North America and the West Indies that produced it.

Matthew Cradock is known to have been owner or part owner of 18 ships between 1627 and 1640, and he was one of a relatively small number of businessmen whose trade encompassed both eastern trade and trade in European waters.

In 1640 Matthew Cradock was a member of a group of business men who opposed the conservative royalist leadership of the East India Company, engaging in an unsuccessful attempt to reform the company's directorate.

Matthew Cradock was a notable exception; a Puritan, in 1628 he made a major investment in the New England Company, formed by a group of Puritan religious and business leaders to take over the assets of the failed Dorchester Company and make new ventures in the colonisation of North America.

Matthew Cradock wrote to Endecott in early 1629, warning him about the issue, suggesting that he settle colonists in the claimed area and that he treat well the Old Planters.

Matthew Cradock recommended the colonists work on building ships and other profit-making activities.

The company, in order to protect its claims, acquired a royal charter in 1629, under which Matthew Cradock was named the colony's governor in London, while Endecott governed in the colony.

Matthew Cradock, who took leave of the emigrants at the Isle of Wight, remained behind in England.

Matthew Cradock's representatives secured for him a plantation at Medford, which became a base for business operations funded by Matthew Cradock, including the colony's first shipyard.

Matthew Cradock sought permission from the king's Privy council to freely export provisions to the colony, claiming the colonists were in dire straits due to a shortage of provisions and threats from Native Americans.

Matthew Cradock was called upon to provide it; he informed the council that the charter was in the colony, and secured the release of the ships with a promise to have the charter delivered.

Matthew Cradock was acquitted of most of these charges, but was convicted of usurpation of authority and deprived of his ability to act on behalf of the company.

In 1640 Matthew Cradock was an auditor of the City of London Corporation.

Matthew Cradock then married Ralph Cudworth, a leading figure of the Cambridge Platonists and Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, by whom she became mother of three further sons and a daughter, Damaris Cudworth, Lady Masham.

Cudworth, Whichcote and the brothers Matthew Cradock had all been students at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.