Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Weddell, John
WEDDELL, JOHN (1583–1642), sea-captain, born in 1583, was, in 1617, master's mate of the East India Company's ship Dragon; and in December was promoted to command the Lion. In April 1621 he sailed from England as captain of the Jonas, with three other ships under his orders. At the Cape of Good Hope he was joined by two others, which he also took under his command and went on to Surat. Thence he was sent by the company's agent to Gombroon, where the shah called on the English to assist him against the Portuguese. The English were, or pretended to be, unwilling; but on the shah insisting, with a threat that he would treat them as enemies and sack their factory, they yielded, and the more readily as they learned that the Portuguese ships at Ormuz were intended to act against the English. The ships under Weddell were accordingly sent to co-operate with the Persians, and after taking possession of the island of Kishm, attacked Ormuz, where they landed on 9 Feb. 1622. The Persians were numerous but inefficient, and the brunt of the work fell on the English, who blockaded the place by sea, and on shore acted as engineers and artillerymen. After holding out bravely for ten weeks, the Portuguese surrendered expressly to the English, and—to the number of 2,500—were sent to Goa. The town was sacked, but most of the booty fell to the Persians; the English share of the plunder was put on board the Whale, which, with her precious cargo, was utterly lost on the bar outside Surat; and thus, in direct gain, neither the company nor the company's servants were much the richer for the capture. This was necessarily inquired into when the Duke of Buckingham claimed a tenth of the spoil, as lord high admiral, and on 6 Aug. 1623 the governor reported to the court of directors that he had 'received from Weddell good satisfaction' as to the matter; that they had been obliged to aid the Persians, for otherwise 'the company's goods and servants ashore had been in danger;' and that they had 'mollified many rigorous courses intended against the Portugals, and lent them their own ships to carry them to a place of safety.' On 4 Dec. 1623 Weddell, then described as 'of Ratcliffe, in Middlesex, gent., aged 40 or thereabouts,' was examined before the judge of the high court of admiralty, and gave a detailed account of his voyage and the plunder.
With the further dispute between Buckingham and the company he was not concerned, and on 28 March 1624 he sailed for India in command of the Royal James. He was again commander of the company's fleet for the year, and on reaching Surat on 18 Sept. and learning that the Portuguese were preparing ‘great forces’ against the English and Dutch in the Gulf of Persia, he was sent at once to Gombroon to join with the Dutch squadron against the common enemy. When the Portuguese fleet came in sight the English and the Dutch commanders consulted, went out to meet it, and after a hard-fought action, which lasted through three days, put the Portuguese to flight, and chased them well on their way to Goa. The affair is curious, for the ‘conspiracy’ or the ‘massacre’ of Amboyna [see Towerson, Gabriel, d. 1623] must have been fresh in the minds of both Weddell and his ally; notwithstanding which, they seem to have acted together with perfect loyalty and good faith.
In 1626 Weddell returned to England, and, attending a court meeting on 18 Dec., was told that the company was going ‘to commence a suit against him’ for irregular or illegal private trading. He hoped that ‘upon consideration of his services they would think he deserved better.’ Afterwards, 16 Feb. 1627, he ‘submitted to their censure,’ but ‘desired them to look at his good services.’ It seems probable that he conceived that his victory over the Portuguese gave him a right to break the very strict regulations which the company found necessary, and that this difference of opinion ultimately led to a bitter quarrel. At the time it was quietly arranged, the more easily, perhaps, as Weddell offered his services to the crown to command a ship of war, and took with him ‘divers prime and able men.’ During 1627 and 1628 he commanded the king's ship Rainbow; in May he was sent with a small squadron to Havre for information; afterwards, he seems to have been with Buckingham at Ré. In December he was at Plymouth, in Catwater, where the Rainbow got on shore, and Weddell was highly praised for his diligence in getting her afloat again (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1627–8, pp. 517, 531). On 28 Jan. 1628 Buckingham wrote to him, giving him leave to come to town. ‘On his arrival he is to let the duke see him with the first, for he longs to present him to his majesty.’ There is no account of his being presented; but Weddell, with a keen eye to business, wrote on 21 Feb. hoping that he might be paid for his late services as a vice-admiral.
By December 1628 he had returned to the service of the company, and on the 3rd was appointed to command the Charles, with the pay of 16l. 13s. 4d. a month. It is thus not to be wondered at that on his return in April 1631 he was again censured for his private trading; and, though he submitted himself to the court, ‘he alleged his good service, and in particular that last year he had saved them at least 2,000l. at Gombroon by keeping a guard on shore to prevent the stealing of goods by the Moors and Persians’ (Cal. State Papers, East Indies, 20 April). A few days later he reported that he had brought home a leopard and a cage of birds, which he desired leave to present to the king and queen in his own name. The company thought it more fit to present them as from themselves. In 1632 Weddell went out again in the Charles, which, by the culpable carelessness of the master of the Swallow, was burnt at Surat, about 20 Jan. 1632–3 (ib. 4 Oct. 1633). The master of the Swallow was sent home in irons, and Weddell, in reporting the circumstance, begged that ‘having lost his whole estate by the firing of the Charles, the court would renew his commission and give him another ship’ (ib. 11 Sept. 1633). The court refused to do this, and sent out orders for him to return in the Jonas.
The company's agents in India took a different view of the matter, and on 21 April 1634 the president and council of Surat gave Weddell a commission as admiral of the company's fleet. This was before they had received the refusal of the court to give him another ship; and on 29 Dec. 1634, when the Jonas was on the point of sailing, they wrote, regretting that the court had not granted Weddell's request. ‘He is,’ they said, ‘a gentleman of valour and resolution, and submits to no man that the company ever employed in the care of his charge, especially at sea; but his tractability so far exceeds that of many of those churlish commanders who conceive themselves only created for the sole good of the fleets they command, that they desire no better or other man to con the fleet.’ Of Weddell's appearance before the court we have no account, but it is evident that he went home feeling that he was aggrieved by the company. It is possible also that the company were disposed to blame him for the loss of the Charles, even though he was not on board at the time. And just at the time of his arrival Sir William Courten [q. v.] was pushing his endeavour to establish a separate trade to the East Indies, and Charles I, always in want of money, had no scruple about giving him a license to do this. For a man in the position of Courten, Weddell and his grievances were valuable aids, and he had no difficulty in persuading Weddell to throw over the company and to take service with him. The grant to Courten was dated 12 Dec. 1635, and within a few months Weddell went out in command of a fleet of six ships. He arrived at Johanna in August 1636; went from there to Goa, and thence to Batticolo, Acheen, Macao, and Canton. At Canton (owing to Portuguese intrigues) he had a difficulty with the Chinese, and, after having stormed one of their forts, was compelled to return to Macao. Going back to India, he succeeded in establishing a trade at Rajapur, in spite of the remonstrances of the company's agents. He returned to England apparently in 1640, and in 1642, still as an interloper, was back in India, where he died. On 9 May 1643 letters of administration—in which he was named as dead ‘in partibus transmarinis’—were given to his creditor, William Courten [see under Courten, Sir William], and on Courten's death, to Jeremy Weddell, only son of the late John Weddell, 28 Aug. 1656. Weddell's will has not been preserved; but the will of his widow, Frances Weddell, proved 2 Oct. 1652 [Somerset House; Bowyer, 165], mentions two sons, John and Jeremy (the former being dead), and a daughter, Elizabeth, wife of Edward Wye. Weddell's property, such of it as was not lost in the Charles, would seem to have been swallowed up in Courten's insolvency. A portrait of Weddell (now lost) was left by his widow to their daughter, Elizabeth Wye.
[Cal. State Papers, East Indies and Domestic; Bruce's Annals of the East India Company, vol. i.; Low's Hist. of the Indian Navy; notes kindly supplied by Mr. William Foster.]