March 14, 1776

What did Henry VII have to do with the American Revolution? “An Englishman” in Melksham, near Bristol, saw a connection. In a letter first published in the Bristol Gazette in November 1775 and reprinted in the Pennsylvania Evening Post in March 1776, this writer described how the “disputes” between Great Britain and the colonies had “risen to a great height” and would “without doubt, terminate to the injury of both countries” if measures were not taken to resolve the conflict. He looked to history to “shew that the English subjects in America are intitled to the privileges of Englishmen, in the same degree and extent as if their ancestors had remained in this realm.” 

As “An Englishman” described it, Henry VII issued a royal patent to the Italian explorer “John Cabot and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancho,” in 1496. This was a local story—the patent stipulated that Cabot’s expeditions should be undertaken from Bristol, a major seaport. Cabot made landfall in North America in 1497, perhaps on Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island, and he was feted when he returned to England.  “An Englishman” wrote that there was “no doubt but that Henry the Seventh, and also the adventurers, deemed that those countries that might be discovered and settled, were to stand in the same relation to this kingdom, as the provinces of Normandy, Gascony, &c. in France did, when our Kings held those provinces.” The writer’s goals were twofold: to “induce the friends of the rights of mankind to search the public records of this kingdom” and “to instruct the ignorant, and reform the bloody minded of this country, that they may relinquish their improper designs.”

The Pennsylvania Evening Post
Printed by Benjamin Towne

From the BRISTOL GAZETTE.

THE disputes between this kingdom and the colonies, in America, are risen to a great height, and are of a very serious nature; and if these disputes are maintained by this kingdom, in the manner they have been for some time, they will, without doubt, terminate to the injury of both countries; but the greatest injury will be felt by this kingdom.

I apprehend the laws that have been made by the legislature here, respecting the Colonies, have been made by those who have no right for that purpose. I do not say the legislature have no power; but I make a difference between power and right; many a man, many a set of men, may have power to do things which they have no right to do. Indeed many of the laws so made have diminished the colonists right as Englishmen. But in order to shew that the English subjects in America are intitled to the privileges of Englishmen, in the same degree and extent as if their ancestors had remained in this realm, it will be proper to look back to the reign of Henry the Seventh, and to the grant he made to John Cabot and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancho, which grant, according to the collection of the public acts, was made March, 1496; and I believe that is the first grant that appears in the English history. That grant empowers Cabot and his sons to set up the King’s standard in any lands, islands, towns, villages, camps, &c. which he shall discover, not in the occupancy of any Christian power, and that this Cabot, his sons, and their heirs, may seize, conquer, and occupy any such lands, islands, &c. and as his liege vassals, governors, locumtenents, or deputies, may hold dominion over and have exclusive property over the same. By this recited grant the Parliament had nothing to do with the lands in question, it was the act of the King; only Cabot, who sailed from Bristol, did not go at the expense of the kingdom to discover those countries, but as his own or his friends. Whatever was the expense of the undertaking, the kingdom, in a Parliamentary way, did not contribute towards it, consequently the Parliament had no right to interfere in the government thereof, those dominions not being within the realm, were not under Parliamentary authority. There is no doubt but that Henry the Seventh, and also the adventurers, deemed that those countries that might be discovered and settled, were to stand in the same relation to this kingdom, as the provinces of Normandy, Gascony, &c. in France did, when our Kings held those provinces; that is, the King governed those provinces by his Lieutenant or Lieutenants, together with the Assemblies of the States in every province, who had all the powers of legislation and taxation, and in which the Parliament here no ways interfered.—I wrote this in order to induce the friends of the rights of mankind to search the public records of this kingdom; and also to instruct the ignorant, and reform the bloody minded of this country, that they may relinquish their improper designs.

AN ENGLISHMAN.
Melksham, Nov. 5, 1775.