CHRISTENING AMERICA

Hawera Star, Volume L, 29 November 1930, Page 16

CHRISTENING AMERICA

WHO gave America its name? Was " it Richard Aineryk. sheriff of Bristol, England, at the time John Cabot disom ered America, or was it Amerigo Vespaio.i, an Italian, to whom the naming has been ascribed lor the last four centuries ? Mr Digby A. Wilson, the American Consul at '.Bristol, is gathering evidence on the point to lay before the responsible authorities in Ameuca. An ancient document, discovered m Westminster Abbey, contains “The Customs Roll of the Port of Bristol, for A.D. 1496-1499,” and its duel interest lies in the fact that among paymerits recorded in the years 13 nil cl 14 of King Henry VJf-i.0., between September 29, 1497, and the same date in 1499 are two payments of £2O each to John Cabot, who discovered North America. . . There is no longer any doubt, it is stated, that on Cabot’s return irom his second voyage he received lor the seioiul time the handsome pension conferred upon him by the King, fiom the hands of the Collectors of Customs of the Port of Bristol. One of these officials, the senior of the two, who probably was the person who actually handed over the money to the exploier, was named Richards Ameryk—also written An Meryk in one deed—who seems to have been a leading citizen of Bristol at the time, and was sheriff in 1503.

Honour Claimed by Bristol

For nearly four centuries it lias been supposed that the name of America had r.oen given to the New World by the friends ot a certain Italian of good birth, Alberico or Amerigo Vespucci, who was certainly not the discoverer of the land, it is remarked that it is difficult to see how the name of America, or Amerika as the Germans and Dutch write it, was derived from that of the Italian Amerigo or Alberico.

If Richard Ameryk died several years before there is any evidence that the name was attributed to Vespucci, and the Bristol official was quite unknown to Continental writers, it is easy to imagine how the mistake may have arisen.

The family of Merrick, or A’Meryk, or Ap Merek, seems to have been settled in Bristol from early times, and several of the members are mentioned in Bristol wills. Richard Ameryclce was a person of importance in Bristol toward the end of the fifteenth century. He was elected Sheriff of Bristol in 1503, and, according to Mr. Weave, died during his year of office.

In his “Manorial History of Clifton,” published in the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, iii, 223-4. Mr. Ellis writes: “We fold, in 1470, one-third” (of the Manor of Clifton) “in possession of a wealthy citizen of Bristol, named Richard Amerycke, who had also been purchasing large estates in Somersetshire.”