Extract from the ‘Interrogatories of Frances Carnero’, 1611-1613. Catalogue Ref: HCA 24/75
‘Interrogatories’ were written questions asked by one party in a legal case to which the other party has to give written answers under oath.
Frances Carnero appears to be involved an illegal trade in La Margarita, São Tomé and Trinidad. This trade involved the trafficking of enslaved African peoples.
Transcript
Item that at the tyme [time] when the said Frances Carnero was
At Gwyana [Guyana] aforesaid [as mentioned], there was divers [many] English
French and Dutch merchants there also, and the
Said Fernando de Bareo governor or St Thome [St. Thomas]
And aforesaid did trade and traffique [buying & selling] with them, and both
English French and Dutch do use trade and
traffique in the said places with leave & lines [written permission]
Of the said governor
- What did Frances Carnero see in Guyana?
- What does it reveal about the origin of tobacco that reached England in the 1610s?
- What does the document suggest about the early Stuart tobacco trade?
- Do these ‘interrogatories’ conflict with or confirm the claims of Thomas Roe (Source 2) concerning the English tobacco trade?