Sir Benjamin Bathurst (1639 – 1704) was a British politician, a slave trader, a Governor of the

East India East India is a region of India consisting of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal and also the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The region roughly corresponds to the historical region of Magadha ...

and

Levant The Levant () is an approximation, approximate historical geography, historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology an ...

companies and a Cofferer of the Royal Household. He was born the 6th surviving son of George Bathurst of Theddingworth, Leicestershire and his first wife Elizabeth Villiers of

Hothorpe Hall Hothorpe Hall, in Northamptonshire, is a Georgian manor house near Market Harborough. It lies in the parish of Marston Trussell in Northamptonshire but is close to Theddingworth in Leicestershire. The hall is currently used as a conference cent ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

. His family were supporters of King

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and after the latter's execution, he chose to move to live in Cadiz. On his return to England as a wealthy man he married Frances Apsley, a close friend of Princess Anne, who obtained for him a position as Treasurer of her Household, which he retained despite mounting evidence over the years that he was embezzling money from Anne and her husband. He bought the manor of

Paulerspury Paulerspury is a civil parish and small village in West Northamptonshire, England. It is approximately south of Towcester and north of Milton Keynes along the A5 road (which follows the course of the Roman Road of Watling Street). The parish ...

and became a London Alderman. He was also made Treasurer to the Duke of York (later

James II of England James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...

) and in 1682 was knighted. He entered Parliament in 1685 to represent

New Romney New Romney is a market town in Kent, England, on the edge of Romney Marsh, an area of flat, rich agricultural land reclaimed from the sea after the harbour began to silt up. New Romney, one of the original Cinque Ports, was once a sea port, ...

as a government nominee, but then chose to represent Bere Alston instead, for which he had also been elected. He held that seat until the election of 1689. He was deputy governor of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

in 1686-68 and 1695–96 and governor in 1688–90. He was a deputy-governor of the Royal Africa Company in 1680–82 and a sub-governor in 1682–4, 1685-6 and 1689–90. He was deputy governor of the

Levant Company The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired ...

in 1686-87 and governor in 1688–89 and 1695. He was also Deputy Governor of the Leeward Islands. In 1702, on the accession of Queen Anne, he was appointed

Cofferer of the Household The Cofferer of the Household was formerly an office in the English and British Royal Household. Next in rank to the Comptroller, the holder paid the wages of some of the servants above and below stairs, was a member of the Board of Green Cloth, a ...

and again elected to Parliament to represent New Romney, holding both positions until his death in 1704. Although Anne had been convinced of his dishonesty for several years, her friendship with his wife seems to have secured his position. He had married

Frances Frances is a French and English given name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'free one.' The male version of the name in English is Francis (given name), Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "French ...

, the daughter of Sir Allen Apsley of

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and Frances Petre, and had 3 sons and a daughter. His 3 sons all became MPs themselves and were Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst (born 1684), Peter Bathurst (1687) and Benjamin Bathurst (1692).

Involvement in the slave trade

With his senior appointments in the Royal Africa Company and the East India Company, Bathurst was heavily involved in the slave trade. The Royal Africa Company was set up in 1660 to trade along the west coast of Africa. It shipped approximately 100,000 African slaves to the Americas (primarily the Caribbean) as part of the total

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and ...

of 3.1 million by British and Portuguese traders. In 1700, Bathurst purchased

Cirencester Park Cirencester Park is a cricket ground in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. The first recorded match on the ground was in 1853, when Cirencester played an All-England Eleven. In 1879, Gloucestershire played a single first-class match at the gr ...

with earnings from commodities including Gold, Silver, cloth and spices as well as the proceeds of slavery. It is still owned by the Bathurst family. When Bathurst died, he left a fortune great enough to endow all three of his sons with country estates.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bathurst, Benjamin 1630s births 1704 deaths People from Harborough District English MPs 1685–1687 English MPs 1702–1705 Knights Bachelor Benjamin Members of the Parliament of England for Bere Alston English slave traders 17th-century English businesspeople

Involvement in the slave trade

See also

References