CROATIANS IN ENGLAND-1491

Adam S. Eterovich

Chapel and Cemetery

In 1893 at North Stoneham near Southhampton, England. a stone slab was uncovered under a boarded floor near the choir stall in the church of North Stoneham. The stone of a bluish color. measures 6 feet 8 inches bv 3 feet 8 inches. In the center are the Arms of a two-headed eagle and at the four comers the emblems of St. Matthew St. Luke, St. Mark and St. John. Carved around the edge of the stone is "The Guild of the Slavonians in the year 1491." In Venetian -Italian the stone stated. " De La Schola de Sclavoni Ano Dni 1491."

The Venetians called their Dalmatian sublects Schiavoni or Slavonians so that they would not develope nationalistic feelings as Croatians.

In Venice there is the Church of San Georgio dei Schiavoni, the dock next to Piazza San Marco-the Riva degli Schiavoni and the Schola Degli Schiavoni or Guild Hall of the Slavonians that is today a museum. This Guild Hall was the meeting place of Dalmatian-Venetian merchants and mariners. Renaissance paintings hang in the hall, including those by Carpaccio the Istrian who probably was Croatian.

Venetian State Fleets first started annual trading visits to Southamton, England and Flanders, Holland in 1317.

Their Chapel of St. Nicholas and cemetery, patron of sailors, was at Southamton and records indicated the removal of the Chapel and tombstone to North Stoneham because of destruction in the 16th century.

The Fleet

A hundred and seventy oarsmen manned each vessel, thirty bowmen or archers, navigating officers, a purser, a caulker, carpenters, cook, cellarman and other minor officials brought its total complement well over 200 men. All were "Slavonians."

These vessels carried spices, cloths, wines and other exotic goods. Some vessels stood at Southamton from two to four months, awaiting the Flanders Fleet and also to trade. At any given time in the 1300's, 1400's and 1500's, 500 to 1000 Dalmatian-Croatians were in England. Probably the largest group of foreigners in England at the time and speaking Croatian at that!

Detailed historical accounts revealed many riots caused by the Dalmatians either "bothering" local girls, causing trouble at the pubs or rebelling against their officers.

The largest fleets in England during the 1400-1500's were the Venetian-Slavonian, Ragusan-Dubrovnik and Genoese.

The Istorija Naroda states that in 1500-1600 Dubrovnik had 180 sailinq ships with 5500 mariners sailing to English and Dutch ports.

E. G. Taylor in his Tudor Geography states, "A majority of the mariners and pilots on the king's ships at this period were foreigners , Ragusans (listed first), Venetians (Slavonians), Genovese, Normans and Bretons". This was noted by French Ambassador Marillac, writing in 1540.

Croatians played a large part in English trade and in the expansion of England into maritime. pursuits. For example, Nicholas de Gozze (Gucetich) a Ragusan merchant in England from 1552-1595 had a worth of 30,000 pounds. The total income of the English crown was 300,000 pounds.

Nikola Sagri (Sagroevich) wrote a book in 1573 about the tides and current of the Atlantic. It was published in Venice. Nlkola was a Ragusan.

NALJESKOVICH BROTHERS England 1537

The Naljeskovich (de Nale) family belonged to the wealthy Ragusan-Dubrovnik citizen class called the Antunini, and was engaged in Anglo-Ragusan trade for generations. Marin Naljeskovich was a distinguished merchant in Ragusa and an importer of English cloths at the beginning of the sixteenth century. He was also a co-owner of a large Ragusan vessel which made frequent voyages to England. Marin had three sons, Ivan, Augustin and Nikola, whom he trained for international trade. Unlike their father, who dealt in English goods only occasionally, the three brothers directed their activity for the most part to the export and import of kerseys and the financial operations connected with that trade.

Nikola was the youngest of the three brothers and was born in 1515. He came to England as a young man and founded a firm in London by 1537. At the beginning he did not belong to the leading Ragusan merchants inEngland, but later his position improved, and by 1541 he was, according to the reports of subsidy collectors, one of the richest aliens in London. He managed the London branch of the firm the other members of which were his brother Augustin, who was in charge of the central office in Ragusa, and Ivan, settled in Venice, then an important centre of international banking. It was a well organized and successful family business.

Nikola’s profits increased steadily, so that he decided to stay in England and became an English citizen. This new status gave him freedom from the many restrictions to which alien merchants were subjected. He was now permitted to own houses and lands in England, and bought considerable property in London, as well as some reclaimed land along the Thames in Kent. He was also able to engage in local trade and dealt in timber, wheat, rye and other commodities.

Naljeskovich lived in the vicinity of Lombard Street; until about 1560 he resided in St. Nicholas Acon parish in Langbourne Ward, and he moved to a complex of buildings which he bought in one of the neighbouring parishes. He lived with several employees (some of whom were Ragusans) and servants, but he never married.

Nikola Naljeskovich must have acquired a number of friends during his long stay in England, but we know the names of only a few. He certainly knew all the Ragusans who lived in London at that time - Frano Gradich (de Gradi), Marin Crijevich (de Cerva), Benedikt Gundulich (de Gondola), Stijepo Gradich, Bernardo and Domeniko Pucich (de Pozza), Ivan Monaldovich (Monaldi), Gabriel Galvani, Ivan Rastich (de Resti) and others. His Italian friends included Paolo Grimaldi, Antonio Guidotti and Guido Cavalcanti, a Genoese merchant who played a fairly important role in Anglo-French diplomatic relations during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Naljeskovich also had some acquaintances among the English - Sir Thomas Gresham, the banking specialist and. founder of the London Exchange, John Quarles, a very eminent London citizen and a member of the Drapers' Company, and Christopher Newman, gentleman.

Nikola died in his house in London in 1566 and was buried in St. Andrew's Undershaft, where a memorial tablet commemorating his death was placed by his brother Augustin, who hurried from Venice at the news of his brother's declining health.

After Nikola's death Augustin took charge of the London branch of the Naljeskovich firm, the eldest brother Ivan continued to handle the business in Ragusa, while the banking and transit centre in Venice had to be entrusted to someone else. Augustin had some difficulties during his first years in London, probably because he lacked the local contacts that his brother had, and the business of the firm declined. But he was an experienced merchant and by about 1570 the Naljeskovich firm was again among the leading ones in London. In a list dating from 1576 Augustin Naljeskovich figures among the 35 wealthiest aliens in London. Soon afterwards, however, Augustin became engaged in a long suit with Innocent Comey, a courtier of Queen Elizabeth, who sued him for debt. Augustin, who certainly did not lack the means to pay the comparatively small sum Comey claimed, refused to do so, alleging that the demand was false and unjust. As a consequence, he was arrested, but he still refused to satisfy Comey's demand. Instead, he furnished his rooms in the jail in a luxurious way, started entertaining his friends in them and generally led an easy life. Comey complained, and the Privy Council ordered the bribed jailors to make Augustin's stay in their prison harder, so as to make him more willing to consider the payment of the alleged debt. It seems that this was effective, and Augustin was released soon afterwards, but he did not resume his business. The Naljeskovich firm, which had been one of the most distinguished in Londcn for almost half a century, was closed. Augustin returned to Ragusa, where he died in 1603. Kostic, V.

GUCETICH, NIKOLA England 1540

After Augustin Naljeskovich's departure from England, Nikola Gucetich (de Gozzi) remained the most important Ragusan-Dubrovnik merchant in London. He belonged to a rich patrician family of Ragusa. Hih father Marin was born in 1473 and was a substantial merchant. Marin traded in Turkey in his youth, but later he returned to Ragusa and set up a firm jointly with his brother Frano. A large amount of their commercial activity was connected with the kersey trade. From 1516 especially Marin was one of the largest importers of English cloths in Ragusa. These cloths were supplied by his brother Frano, who made several voyages to England between 1514 and 1523. Early in 1523 he was drowned when an English ship, the Mary George, laden with merchandise for Ragusa and the eastern Mediterranean, foundered in the Bay of Biscay. After that Marin did business through Ragusan commission merchants in London, and about 1540 he sent his eldest son Rafo to England, who set up a firm in London. A few years later Marin died, and Rafo, remained in London until his younger brother Nikola was old enough to take charge of the London firm. At the end of 1552 Nikola took over, and Rafo, returned to Ragusa, where he married and had two children, Marin and Nikola. He continued to trade in kerseys, which his brother sent him from England, but he also invested money in ships and various financial transactions.

Nikola was a very able and energetic businessman and soon joined the leading Ragusan merchants in London. By 1560 the volume of his trade was second only to that of Nikola Naljeskovich. He used the overland route, exporting through the Flanders ports first, and via Hamburg later. By about 1570 approximately one-fourth of the English cloths reaching Ragusa came from his stores. His role in this trade increased continually, and from 1580 onwards he virtually monopolized the export of English products to Ragusa.

Moreover, Gucetich gradually extended his activity beyond the Anglo-Ragusan sphere and established links with all the important economic centres in Europe. He had business partners or agents in Lyons, Rouen, Staden, Antwerp, Hamburg, Cologne, Leghorn, Florence, Lucca, Naples, Brescia, Verona, Ancona and Venice. The people he did business with belonged to the international commercial and financial aristocracy and were from dynasties which had played an important role in the economic life of Europe for generations - the Marini-Spinola from Genoa, the Bonvisi from Lucca, the Boglini from Venice, the Maffei from Verona.

Gucetich's exports to Ragusa consisted mostly of Hampshire kerseys and Cheshire cottons. He also imported some goods into England - costly Italian fabrics, taffeta, silk, Genoese velvet, jewelry, ermine, etc. His business in England itself was also very extensive; at the time of his death he had unfinished commercial or banking transactions with nearly a hundred Englishmen. These numerous and varied activities brought Gucetich large profits and he ammassed great wealth. There is evidence suggesting that he was the richest alien in England in the last quarter of the sixteenth century.

In the subsidy returns he was always in the top group and was ranked with the proverbially rich Sir Horatio Pallavicino. In the Armada year, when Elizabeth I exacted from her citizens and foreigners resident in England Gucetich was the only alien asked to contribute the very large sum of 300 pounds. Two years later, when another loan was demanded, the prospective contributors were divided into categories according to their wealth. The first group consisted of 92 persons, bothEnglish and alien, who represented the financial elite of London and were expected to disburse from 100 to 200 pounds. The maximum amount of 200 pounds was demanded of fourteen people only - twelve Englishmen, Sir Horatio Pallavicino (a denizen) and Nikola Gucetich, the only alien in the group.

Although Nikola Gucetich, unlike his peer in wealth Sir Horatio Pallavicino, lived in a quiet and retired way, devoting himself wholly to the pursuit of profit, he was not a miser. His household in London was maintained on a grand scale, he was not reluctant to spend money, and was even careless with his wealth. His business books were in a chaotic state, and not infrequently he lost count of large sums of money, sometimes amounting to more than a thousand pounds, and contented himself with merely recording the fact.

Gucetich lived in Tower Ward in London. He never married, but his household was a large one since his extensive business activities required the assistance of a number of people. These included at various times Horatio Franciotti, Giuseppe Simonelli, William Petala, Henry Welles, Gualtieri Panciatichi, Nikola's nephew Marin, Mato Bobaljevich, and Pavle Gundulich, a turbulent young man who came to London in 1590, but did not stay long with Nikola and set up an independent business in London. In 1592 another young Ragusan, Nikola Mencetich (de Menze) came to England to work for Nikola.

Three years later Nikola Gucetich died in London. He left nearly 30.000 pounds (about as much he had sent to his brother and nephews in Ragusa during his lifetime), not counting the property he had in Ragusa. He left large bequests of money to Ragusan churches and monasteries, and the rest of his wealth, with the exception of some minor legacies, was bequeathed to his brother's sons Nikola and Marin.

The death of Nikola Gucetich marked the beginning of a drama with many actors, the individual episodes of which took place in various European towns, to reach a tragic end in the death of young Nikola Mencetich in a Venetian prison in 1598.

In London, Mencetich, whom Nikola had appointed the executor of his will, made an inventory of the old Ragusan's goods, but he made two great mistakes: he did not call witnesses and he rashly sent a report to the heirs of the amount of their heritage. In the meantime, bankers and merchants all over Europe began settling their accounts with the Gucetich firm and sending in reports of their debts and credits. In Ragusa, the flow of kerseys and other cloths from England ran dry, and the Ragusan importers were faced with the problem of finding another reliable commission merchant in London. The heirs, Nikola and Marin Gucetich, decided that one of them should go to England to receive the inheritance, and the choice fell on Marin, who had been in England before. His departure from Ragusa was prompted by a second letter from Nikola Mencetich, who had had a better look into old Nikola's books and found out that the estimate mentioned in his first report was too high. Marin travelled with several companions, one of whom was the famous Ragusan mathematician Marin Getaldich (Ghetaldi).

In England, the authorities became interested in Gucetich's will, and an action was instituted in the Court of the Exchequer based on a statute from the time of Henry VIII, according to which the estates of all benefactors and donors of monasteries were to be confiscated. Mencetich managed, however, to avert confiscation.

Shortly after that Marin Gucetich arrived in England. His relations with Nikola Mencetich were friendly at the beginning, but they soon deteriorated. Gucetich accused Mcncetich of having embezzled part of his inheritance, and brought an action against him in the Court of Chancery. Mencetich was discreditcd, his business in England was ruined, and he found himself deprived of all sustenance. As the lawsuit dragged on from term to term, without prospect of a speedy conclusion, he saw no other solution than to fly from England.

Nikola Mencetich’s younger brother Jerko, who had come to England to help Nikola remained in London to represent his brother, while Marin Gucetich sent his agent Jerko Getaldich in pursuit of Nikola. Mencetich got as far as Venice, where Getaldich overtook him, had him arrested, and kept him in jail until Mencetich fell ill and died. Kostic, V.