Difference between revisions of "Marke Mortimer"

Name

Title	Firstname	Lastname
	Marke	Mortimer
Marke Mortimer signature (1650), HCA 13/124 f.6v
Marke Mortimer signature (1656), HCA 13/71 f.40r
Signature
Name variants
Mark Mortimer Marke Mortimer (signature, 1656)

Other information

Marke Mortimer gave personal answers in the High Court of Admiralty in December 1650 to a libell given in on the behalf of Clement Starre, referring to events in 1649. In his evidence Mortimer referred to sugar laden at Barbados onboard the ship the Constant by ffrancis Ford and consigned to Mortimer.^[1] He stated that ordinary sugar was worth 3 d per pound in Barbados and would yield 6 d in London.^[2] Although Mortimer is not identified in his evidence as a grocer of Saint Dunstans in the East, the signatures in HCA 13/124 and in HCA 13/71 are clearly the same.

Marke Mortimer deposed in the High Court of Admiralty in March 1656.^[3] His evidence concerned the administration of the estate of the deceased Barbados merchant ffrancis Ford by London merchant Richard Batson. Mortimer states he met ffrancis Ford only once, nine years previously, and that Ford was Batson's servant, factor or agent in Barbados. Mortimer had received various goods from Ford, prior to Ford's death on 1654, including "Indico's sugars coffies gingers tobacoes and elephants teeth". Mortimer had also received various bills of exchange from Ford.^[4]

An entry in the act book of the High Court of Admiralty on Jun 21 1656 concerns the same case brought by Batson, and mentions a Hilliard Mortimer as well as Marke Mortimer. The act book states the case details as "Richard Batson administrator of the goods of ffrancis fford deceased against whatsoever goods wares or merchandizes or summes of money remaininge in the hands of Charles Williams Marke Martimer and Nicholas Blake or any of them belonging to the said fford deceased and against the said Hilliard Mortimer and Blake and all."^[5] The deceased ffrancis Ford is presumably the "ffrancis Ford" mentioned above, who in 1650 consigned sugar to Mortimer at Barbados.

Marke Mortimer is probably one of the freighters of the Susan and Anne (Master: George Boys) returning from Barbados and, as a freighter of the ship, he was one of the defendants in a case brought in the High Court of Admiralty in March 1656 by the owner of the ship. Goods had been damaged on the return voyage from Barbados, and evidently there was a dispute about payment of freight.^[6]

A merchant "Mark Mortimore" appears in the London Directory of 1677 with an address of "Tower-hill", which is consistent with his continued residence in the parish of Saint Dunstans in the East.^[7]

Other primary sources

PROB 11/383/35 Will of Mark Mortimer, Grocer of London 16 April 1686