Curtes is dead, and by this time is busy Stucley in the midst of his coffers." Speedily the accumulations of the merchant's industrious life were squandered in extravagance. We next hear of him in April, 1561, when he was appointed to a captaincy in Berwick. There he entertained Shan O'Neil, a famous, turbulent chief from Ireland, who late in this year visited Elizabeth's Court, where his train of kerns and gallowglasses, clothed in linen kilts dyed with saffron, made a great impression.
While at Court, Shan wrote to Elizabeth: "Many of the nobles, magnates, and gentlemen treated me kindly and ingenuously, and, namely, Master Thomas Stucley entertained me with all his heart, and with all the favour he could." The friendship was destined to bear fruit later.
In a few years but little of the alderman's savings remained, and with the wreck that was left, Stucley fitted out a small squadron, and obtained permission from Elizabeth to colonize Florida; and the Queen contributed "2000 weight of corn-powder, and 100 curriers; and besides artillery to the value of £120 towards the furniture of his journey." This was her investment in the venture, though she did not furnish the powder out of her own stores, but made one Bromefield go into debt for it with a Dutchman.
Fuller says that, "having prodigally misspent his Patrimony, he entered on several projects (the issue-general of all decaied estates), and first pitched on the peopling of Florida, then newly found in the West Indies. So confident his ambition, that he blushed not to tell Queen Elizabeth 'that he preferred rather to be sovereign of a Mole-hill than the highest Subject to the greatest King in Christendom'; adding, moreover, ’that he was assured he should be a Prince before his
