Richard Amerike

Hudd's theory, greatly elaborated by later writers, suggested that the continental name America was derived from Amerike's surname in gratitude for his sponsorship of Cabot's successful discovery expedition to 'the new World'.

The "Amerike" version was noted by some modern historians because it looked like "America" and because this was how his name was spelled on a tomb brass created for his daughter in 1538.

By the early 1490s Amerike's main landed estate, acquired by purchase, seems to have been in Long Ashton on the Somerset side of the River Avon.

[5] During his period of office he was several times accused of malpractice, including false accounting, and was obliged to pay a substantial sum of money to the King, Henry VII, for his pardon.

Under the authority of King Henry VII of England John Cabot led three voyages of discovery from Bristol in search of new lands and a route to the supposed riches of the East.

[19] This made sense, since under the terms of Cabot's letters patent from Henry VII, which gave him his authority, all trade from any new lands discovered was to pass through Bristol.

[20] However, no list of sponsors has ever been found, and the only proven funding, in amounts insufficient for a voyage, came from the London branch of the Florentine banking house of the Bardi and, in 1498, from Henry VII.

Indeed, they suggest that Ap Meryk may have been hostile to Cabot because the terms of the explorer's royal patent would have made it difficult for the port's customs officers to profit from any trade established to new lands.

This may explain why the customs officers created problems for the explorer by refusing to pay the initial instalment of the pension he was granted in December 1497, despite the existence of an order from the King stating that this should happen.

Amerike, and his fellow customs officer, Arthur Kemys, were the paymasters for the pension of £20 a year granted by Henry VII to John Cabot on 13 December 1497.

Cabot's grant specified that he was to be paid out of revenues arising from the customs dues payable to the Crown on goods exported and imported in the port of Bristol by way of merchandise.

[27] In 1908, the local Bristol antiquarian Alfred Hudd first proposed the theory that the word America had evolved from Amerike or ap Meryk.

[6] It is proposed that as a main investor, Amerike's name would have been noted on ships' rutters or working charts, indicating the locations where his cargo had been traded.

It is further supposed that such secret documents could have been seized by Spanish explorers when a British voyage was mysteriously lost during the same period that Amerigo Vespucci was mapping the coast of Brazil -this information later reaching Waldseemüller.