| Authorised form of name | Talbot; Sir; John (1630 - 1714); politician and courtier |
| Dates | 1630 - 1714 |
| Nationality | British |
| Date of birth | 7 June 1630 |
| Date of death | 13 March 1714 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial:
St Cyriac's Church, Lacock, Wiltshire, England, Europe |
| Occupation | Courtier; soldier; politician |
| Activity | Career:
Commissioner for oyer and terminer, Oxford circuit (1660); Justice of the Peace, Worcestershire (1660-1689), Wiltshire (1661-1689), Westminster (c.1680-1689); Deputy-Lieutenant of Worcestershire (1660-1688), and of Wiltshire (1683-1688); Gentleman of the Privy Chamber (1660-1685); Commissioner for Assessment for Wiltshire and Worcestershire (1660-1680), for corporations Yorkshire (1662-1663), for Westminster (1663-1680), for Middlesex (1673-1680), and for Wiltshire (1689); Army captain, Duke of York's Horse Gueards (1660-1672), Lieutenant-Colonel of the Barbadoes Regiment of Dragoons (1672-1674), Colonel of Dragoons (1678-1679, 1685-1687); Colonel, Queen Dowager’s Horse, later 6 Dragoon Guards (1687-1688); Assistant, Royal Adventurers into Africa (1671); Commissioner for Loyal and Indigent Officers (1662); Assistant, Royal Fishing Company (1674); Sub-commissioner for Prizes, London (1665-1667); Farmer of Excise, Worcestershire (1665-1667); Trustee for country excise (1668-1674); Trustee for Fee-Farm Rents (1670-1673); Commissioner for Inquiry, Richmond Park (1671); Shareholder in Royal Africa Company (1672); Commissioner for Recusants (1675); Freeman,Worcester (1683); Recorder of Devizes (1685-1688)
Honours:
Kt 1660 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 29/07/1663 |
| Age at election | 33 |
| Proposer | William Brouncker |
| Date of ejection or withdrawal | 22 July 1685 |
| RSActivity | Committee and panels:
Mechanical Committee (1664) ; Committee for Agriculture [Georgical] (1664) |
| Other Royal Society activity | Proposed on 22 July 1663 and admitted on 6 January 1664. He was expelled due to non-payment of his arrears |
| Relationships | Parents: Sherington Talbot and Jane Littleton
Married: 1) Elizabeth Keyt; 2) Barbara Slingsby
Additional relatives: grandson and heir James Ivory Talbot; Sir Gilbert Talbot (FRS 1663) |
| OtherInfo | Talbot refused to swear allegiance to William and Mary after James II was deposed, which rendered him ineligible for any further public office. As a member of parliament, he was involved in a variety of committees and bills, including one on the prevention of dueling, which coincided with Talbot's principal being seriously injured in a duel a few days prior. He was also involved in a more well-known duel as a second to the Earl of Shrewsbury, who was dueling against the Duke of Buckingham (FRS 1663).
Talbot was an assistant and shareholder of The Royal Adventurers into Africa, later Royal African Company (RAC). The RAC was a British trading company established by Royal Charter in 1660 which enslaved and sold African people. The company was chartered by Charles II, the founding royal Patron of the Royal Society, which was also chartered in 1660. The RAC was made up of and funded by members of the Stuart royal family and London merchants many of whom were, or went on to become, Fellows of the Royal Society. The Royal Society itself held shares in the company from 1682 until 1699. The RAC held a monopoly on English trade on the west coast of Africa. The principal interest of the company was originally gold and secondarily other natural resources. The Company's second charter in 1663 mentions trade in enslaved people, who were mainly sold into slavery on British owned estates in the West Indies and America. The Jesus College Cambridge Legacy of Slavery Working Party has stated that the RAC was responsible for selling more Africans into slavery in America than any other institution in the history of the Atlantic slave trade, and that they ran a brutal regime with the full knowledge of their investors. The company became insolvent in 1708, it survived until 1752 when its assets were transferred to the new African Company of Merchants, which lasted until 1821.
Talbot was also an assistant of the Company of the Royal Fishery of England, a trading company incorporated in 1676, which sanctioned involuntary labour, though not lifelong slavery, on Company ships. |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; Hunter; Le Neve; Wikipedia; Henning
References:
Govier, M. 1999. 'The Royal Society, Slavery and the Island of Jamaica: 1660-1700', in Notes and Records, vol. 53, pp. 203-217 |
| Code | NA5713 |