NAMED FOR BRITAIN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 39, 25 November 1937, Page 6

NAMED FOR BRITAIN.

THEORY ABOUT AMERICA. In the Church of St. Mary Bedcliff, Bristol, where the light is clear and bright with the colour of stained glass, will he found the “Amerycke Brass.” The brass shows a man and a woman in the costume of Cabot’s time. The woman is Jona, daughter' of Cabot’s friend, Bichard Amerycke, says the “Clu'istian Science Monitor.’’ Some years ago, as the result of research in the records of English and Continental libraries, the theory was put forward that America is named after Bichard Amerycke, Sheriff of Bristol, who presented the King’s gift of £l2 to John Cabot, “hym that found the new Isle.” A story has persisted that America was so called in Bristol before the name Avas in general use. Furthermore, Amerycke Avas a much more considerable man in his day than Avas Amerigo Vespucci, Avho Avas a friend of the Columbus family. Again it Avas the custom to call places after surnames rather than Christian names. Tavo fires, one at Bristol, and the other at Westminster, so. completely destroyed the Cabot records that it is not known CA r en Avhere John Cabot Avas buried. The Amerycke suggestion, therefore, is not more than a fascinating theory. On the other hand, records untouched in some library may yet reveal this as the true story of America’s christening. It Avas on June 24, 1497, that the Cabots made their landfall on the mainland of North America. The flags of England and St. Mark were planted on the soil of “the neAV found land” Avliicli aftei’Avards became England’s first colony. John Cabot and his son Sebastian, then a youth of 19 or 20 years, had sailed across the Atlantic with a crew of eighteen men in a ship of some hundred tons burden. The King had granted them a charter for the. adventure, and on the sails of their ship, the Mattlie-w, Bristol ladies had embroidered the Boyal arms and the arms of the city. The Mayor and the abbot of the Augustinians, Avitli a crowd of citizens, had Avished them Godspeed, and the church bells had clanged as they dropped doAA’n the six miles of Avon to the sea.

They Avere not the first white, men to reach this land, for Keif Ericson, sailing south-Avest from Greenland in the year 1000, found a new country AAdiich he named Vinland and Avhicli is noAV called Massachusetts and Bhode Island.