Robert Hayman

Hayman had mentioned a plan to travel and study in Europe, and this apparently happened, as in a letter his father wrote to Robert Cecil in 1600 he states that he hoped for a career for his son in some government office, and that towards this end he had educated him at both Oxford University and at Poitiers.

Hayman was appointed the Newfoundland colony's first and only governor in 1618 when Bristol's Society of Merchant Venturers received a charter from King James I of England to establish the settlement.

[11] Although Hayman apparently remained committed to Newfoundland he was also interested in other colonial ventures, including one to Guyana under the direction of Robert Harcourt.

It was while travelling up the Oyapock by canoe that Hayman died of a sudden fever and was hastily buried by his companions near the banks of the river, on or about 17 October 1629.

[12] His will, signed and sealed on 17 November 1628 but not proved until 1633 (1632 Old Style), leaves his estate to "my loving Cosin and Nephew Thomas Muchell of Longaston" (modern Long Ashton) "in the Countie of Somersett...".

Of the value of £100 each, one related to the safe arrival of Hayman's ship in Guiana and the other was "of one hundred pounds assured by the said Doctor Arthur Ducke on my life".