[2] This was to accompany a state-sponsored slaving expedition down the coast of Africa, with the intention of selling the enslaved people to the Spanish colonists in America.
In the hope of alleviating a family quarrel, the Justices of Assize in Kent were instructed to attempt 'to make an agrement betwixt Anthony Parkehurst and his father that meaneth to disinherit him'.
[1] From c.1575-8, Parkhurst engaged in summer fishing expeditions to Newfoundland, while also undertaking extensive surveys of the harbours, the land and the maritime resources around the island.
In 1577-8 Parkhurst wrote a letter to a senior figure he had met at Queen Elizabeth's court, setting out his case for the colonisation of Newfoundland by England.
This letter would later be published in 1589 in Hakluyt's key work, Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques And Discoveries Of The English Nation.
[7] Parkhurst's long letter provided detailed information about the nature of the European fishery around Newfoundland, as practiced by the English, French, Spanish, Basques and Portuguese, including estimates of the number of ships involved and their size.
[9] Prof Quinn characterised Parkhurst as 'An intelligent and well-informed commentator, he was, with Edward Hayes, Newfoundland’s most important early publicist.
However, in 1583 he wrote a 'commendation', in verse, in praise of Sir George Peckham’s A True Reporte of the late discoveries, and possession...of the Newfound Landes by Humphrey Gilbert.