P_10433_0054 – Henry Nurse
Henry Nurse (d. 1705), co-owner of voyage by the Prosperous to Africa and Antigua in 1700, previously a slave-ship captain for the Royal African Company on five voyages from London between 1676 and 1684 and Agent General for the RAC on the Gold Coast 1684-1688. The will of Henry Nurse ‘Gentleman of Stepney’ is a trust will: the trustees were Roger Shaller [sic] [q.v. under Roger Shuller] of St Mary Axe London and John Smalwood [sic] [q.v. under John Smallwood] of Wapping, Ship Chandler. The slave-ship captain Nurse Hereford was his nephew.
Title: /
First name: Henry
Middle name: /
Last name: Nurse
Aliases: /
Primary cohort: London
Sex: Male
Religion: /
Social background: /
Primary outcome: /
Political Affiliation: /
Relations
Prudence Woodfine
Spouse (married 23/05/1671)
Political Offices Held
No Information
Bankruptcies
No Information
Geographic experiences
Africa
Agent for the RAC on the Gold Coast 168-88
Internal migrant: Don't know
Foreign born: No
Supplier to slave trade voyages: Don't know
Creditor to slave trade voyages: Don't know
Philanthropy: Yes
Small monetary bequests in his will
Plantation owner: No
Sources: Mitchell, Prince of Slavers pp. 62-3. T 70/1212 Description: Sarah Bonadventure: invoices, ivory shipped, etc. Bound ledger containing accounts of the ship Sarah Bonadventure under Captain Henry Nurse during a Royal African Company trading voyage to the Guinea coast of West Africa. Includes detailed manifests of trading goods and records of ivory and slaves bought on a daily basis with costs shown. Date: 1677 PROB 11/484/96 E.g. C 9/462/30 Description: Short title: Nurse v Royal African Company. Plaintiffs: Henry Nurse. Document type: bill only Date: 1697; C 10/525/94 Description: Short title: Nurse v Royal African Company. Plaintiffs: Henry Nurse. Defendants: Royal African Company of England, Thomas Cotton, Philadelphia Cotton his wife, Anne Duck, Sir John Molesworth kt, Nicholas Lowes and others. Subject: money matters, Middlesex. Document type: bill only Date: 1697; C 5/210/42 Description: Short title: Nurse v Whately. Plaintiffs: Henry Nurse. Defendants: Solomon Whately, [unknown] Arthur, and others. Subject: money matters, Middlesex. Document type: bill, two answers. Date: 1700.
Other Individuals
No information
Organisations
No information
Crossings (6)
21262 - Prosperous (1700 - 1701)
Role: Owner
15074 - Mary
Role: Captain
9985 - Sarah Bonadventure (1676 - 1677)
Role: Captain
9956 - Sarah Bonadventure (1678 - 1680)
Role: Captain
9692 - Prudence (1674 - 1675)
Role: Captain
9666 - Mary (1684 - 1685)
Role: Captain
Birth
Date: /
Location: /
Death
Date: 1705
Location: /
Burial
Date: 1705
Location: London (Middlesex)
Memorial details: 'Large Recumbent Slab' for Agent Henry Nurse and his family, Walter C Pepys and Ernest Godman, 'Churchyard and monuments', in Survey of London Monograph 6, St Dunstan's Church, Stepney (London, 1905), pp. 40-47. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/bk6/pp40-47 [accessed 6 January 2023].
Christening: /
Knighthood: /
Baronetcy: /
Peerage: /
Residencies
Occupation: Mariner (Labourer)
Slave ship captain
Schools
No Information
Universities
No Information
Inns of Court
No Information
Military training
No Information
Imperial positions
No Information
Apprenticeships
No Information
Livery company affiliations
No Information
Other business activities
No Information
Was slave trading profitable: Don't know
Will
Value of Total Personalty: /
Value of Known Legacies (where material to total estate): £5,000
Occupation: /
Town/City: /
Courts: PCC
Will of Henry Nurse of Stepney gent. made 16/05/1705. He left his wife Prudence all his lands at Poplar Marsh, Eastham and Chelmsford in Essex, Limehouse and Poplar (other than his estate called Turpentine) for life, subject to an annuity of £20 p.a. to his mother Elizabeth Nurse, and then in entail to his son John Nurse and his male heirs, failing whom his female heirs, failing whom his [the testator's] daughters Anne Nurse, Katherine Martin and Elizabeth Nurse. [In apparent contradiction of the above, he then left a farm at Chelmsford after his wife's death to his daughter Katherine Martin, and houses at Eastham and land at Chelmsford to his daughter Elizabeth, and further land at Chelmsford to his daughter Ann, all in entail]. He left the Turpentine farms and related lands near Bromley in entail to his son Thomas Nurse. He forgave hs son John indebtedness of £1100, and left monetary legacies of: £500 to his wife; £300 to his son Thomas; £1000 to his daughter Ann; £800 to his daughter Elizabeth; and £600 in trust to buy land for Katherine Martin. He left a series of smaller monetary legacies to friends and relatives, totalling some £400, and philanthropic legacies of £10 to the poor of Kempsford in Gloucestershire, £5 each to the poor of Limehouse and Mile End Hamlets and £20 to the poor of Trinity House, of which he was an elder. He left his residual estate to his wife, son John and three daughters equally.
Legacies
No information
No information