Exeter man Joseph Pitts (1663?-1739) was the first Englishman to perform the Hajj and visit Mecca and Medina. He published a fascinating account of his travels and observations in 1704. Exeter university’s Paul Auchterlonie has written a definitive work covering...
Born in Exeter in 1663, Joseph Pitts was captured by pirates and sold as a slave in Algiers. His third master took him to Mecca on the Hajj. After his return to Exeter in 1695, Pitts live peacefully in Exeter, publishing his book in 1704. Paul Auchterlonie of Exeter...
During the English Civil War, Exeter was besieged twice, once by the Royalists, and later by the Parliamentary forces. According to an article by Robert Hodkinson of the Sealed Knot, royalists accused the parliamentary leader the Earl of Stamford of ‘resorting...
What is meant by a ‘blackmore’ ? ‘Blackmore’ is a variant of the archaic and derogatory ‘blackamoor’ which appeared circa 1500s and was common parlance in Elizabethan England. One interpration being it is a variant of ‘Black...
The epic story of Native American woman Pocahontas (1596-1617) has fascinated people for generations and here we find a local connection. Pocahontas landed at Plymouth on June 12th 1616, with her husband John Rolfe, their son Thomas, and 11 of her fellow Powhatans....
John Hawkins (born in Plymouth in 1532) conducted the first of his three slave raids on the coast of West Africa in 1562, capturing people and taking them across the Atlantic for sale in Hispaniola. Hawkins is sometimes credited with inventing the triangular slave...
The foundry in St Thomas, Cowick Street/Albany Road, is dated from 1525-1625 and was owned by John Birdall. It closed when he died. During excavations in 1984, manilla moulds were found. Manillas were armlets cast from bronze and copper (red gold) and used as currency...
In 1522, Henry VIII ordered a military survey of the whole of England, to see who was ready for war, and to measure the wealth of his subjects. This was two years after his historic meeting with Francis I of France at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The constables of...
In 1522, Henry VIII ordered a military survey of the whole of England, to see who was ready for war, and to measure the wealth of his subjects. This was two years after his historic meeting with Francis I of France at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The constables of...
Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, whose divorce caused the foundation of the Church of England, visited Exeter in 1501. She was travelling from Spain to London, via Plymouth, en route to marry Prince Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VII,...
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