Insertion And Social Relations

INSERTION AND SOCIAL RELATIONS Due to their status as more or less stable residents on the island, the English merchants came to insert themselves in a clear way into the social fabric and as a clear example of this we will mention that many lived in rented houses, that they also had warehouses rented for a long time and that they also maintained a good relationship with the shopkeepers and saleswomen of the place where they lived and other places in the area. island. Some of them bought houses for housing and on a few occasions even built them, as was the case with Joseph Lambell. They had Spanish housekeepers and servants in their homes, with whom they came to establish bonds of affection that went beyond labor relations, which is highlighted in the commands that several English merchants made in their wills. Thus, Ricardo Ellis ordered in his will that 300 reales be given to Francisca María, his mistress who had served him for several years, as well as various objects of the house, adding that he should be given 200 reales after his death to help raise and feed the children he had.37 In the same way, Duarte Baquer ordered in his will that after his death the housewife should be given 200 reales and 100 reales to the boy who was serving her, also ordering that Francisco Hernández Robado, a resident of the Port, be given all his clothes, because of the great friendship he had for him and for having been in his house.38 In some cases, they had relationships with Canarian women, as a result of which they were natural children, as was the case of María Nicolás, the natural daughter of Pedro Bulkeley, an English merchant who lived in Tenerife in the town of La Orotava. When the girl was about to marry Pedro Domingo de Palenzuela, Diego Tornehull gave her in the name of Bulkeley a dowry of 1,600 reales in money and 500 reales in trousseau.39 We are also aware of the complaint lodged by Luis Coello Texera, a resident of La Orotava, against Juan Guebar, an Englishman residing in the town of La Orotava, on the ground that he had four children with a wife and had sent one of them to England.40 Several English merchants married Canarian women and among them we can mention Guillermo Clerque who married Ana Francisca de Escañuela, Guillermo Baltar who married first to María de Ocanto and secondly to Sebastiana Machado, Ricardo Antonio who married Sebastiana Martín, Mateo Rubins to Manuela Ortiz de Mendieta, Gregorio Lynch to Clara de León, Gilberto Smith with Juana Temudo del Castillo, etc. In some cases, they converted to Catholicism in order to later marry, as was the case with Baltar and Rubins.41 His relations with the civil authorities were generally good, appearing on numerous occasions making business deals with the island's aldermen and even with the Captain General. However, it should be mentioned that at times conflicts of various kinds arose and thus in 1653 several English merchants denounced that because of the investigation that had been carried out against them by D. Pedro Castillo de Guzmán, Captain General who had been of the islands, they had been caused damages, losses, costs, and salaries, for which they gave power to procurators to present the cause before the King.42 Another example of a long conflict can be found in the case that the Justice and the Regiment of La Laguna brought with the English consul because of the different interpretation that was made of the chapters of the peace treaty signed between England and Spain, which according to the English merchants allowed them to sell fish at retail in their stores. which was opposed by the island's Cabildo. The lawsuit was long and spanned from 1669 to 1685 involving three different English consuls, Thomas Cowling, John Guebar and Richard Owen.43 Its relations with the ecclesiastical authorities were generally good, as evidenced by the fact that a relatively large number of auctions of the tithe of vineyards of the different benefices of the island of Tenerife were traditionally made by English merchants. To give an image of the closeness of the relationships of certain. With the ecclesiastical authorities, we will mention that Leonardo Clerque, a merchant who was consul of the English nation, corresponded more or less regularly with Bishop García Jiménez.44 Nor were relations with the Holy Office bad in general, and thus we will mention that many English merchants maintained commercial relations with relatives of the Holy Office, particularly in the wine trade. In spite of them, we know that cases were opened against some foreign merchants, among them Guillermo Clerque,45 Baltasar Polster, consul of the Dutch nation,46 and Jorge Rife, an Englishman who resided in La Orotava.47 Finally, we will mention that the English came to have a cemetery in Puerto de la Cruz where they could bury those who died without being Catholics since 1674 based on the peace treaty, and that the Holy Office, although it protested and put some obstacles in place to prevent it from doing so, it functioned with full normality to the point that it is currently preserved in Puerto de la Cruz where it is known by the name of La Chercha.