London alone, had now been withdrawn. It seems to have been the common practice for ships arriving from the Colony to touch at Cowes in the Isle of Wight for the purpose of making a nominal compliance with the terms of their bonds, and then, after changing masters, to direct their course towards the Low Countries. It was these vessels chiefly which Captain Pennington was instructed to intercept, in some instances, they were detained at Cowes until they could give good security that they would convey their cargoes to the port of London and there submit to the imposition of the regular customs.[1] Governor Harvey himself was charged with permitting Dutch vessels to take tobacco on board in Virginia without requiring the legal assurance that they would proceed to England, but this he denied with great earnestness.[2] in 1635, the Admiral in command of the English Channel, the Earl of Lindsay, received the same orders as Captain Pennington in 1633, with reference to the stoppage of all ships from the English plantations which sought to carry their cargoes to Holland without having paid the duties prescribed.[3]
In 1636, there was a disposition on the part of the English Government to prevent the Dutch from becoming exporters of Virginian tobacco, even though the fullest security as to the payment of the customs due upon their loading was given, the encouragement of shipping being alleged as one of the principal reasons for restricting the
- ↑ Francis Brooke to Farmers of Customs, British State Papers, Colonial, vol. VIII, No. 6; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1634, p. 58, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Proceedings of Privy Council, Dec. 11, 1635, Dom. Cor. Charles I, vol. 303, No. 19; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1635, p. 139, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Lords of the Admiralty to Earl of Lindsay, Dom. Cor. Charles I, vol. 264, folio 128; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1635, p. 100, Va. State Library.
