Richard Cocks

Richard Cocks (1565–1624) was the head of the British East India Company trading post in Hirado, Japan, between 1613 and 1623, from its creation until its bankruptcy and closure.

After losing a large amount of money to a Portuguese con artist, he could no longer pay his English creditors and returned home in disgrace.

[3] Cocks sailed to Japan on the ship Clove as part of the first English expedition to the country, led by John Saris, which left England in 1611 and arrived in Hirado on 12 June 1613.

[7] In the spring of 1622, Cocks was ordered to return to Batavia after Richard Fursland, the president of the Council of Defence at the Company, received reports of extravagant feasting and womanizing among the English traders in Hirado.

[4] After the trading post was closed in 1623, the East India Company in Batavia decided to send Cocks to England for a final judgment as to whether he should be punished as a criminal for his mismanagement.