NOTABLE CLOTHWORKER Spotlight on John Sweetnyg, an established Clothworker in the South of Spain (16th Century) By Dr María Grove-Gordillo, Researcher
J
ohn Sweetyng was one of the earliest members of The Clothworkers’ Company and one of the best-established English merchants in southern Spain during the early Tudor period. Based in Cadiz, he witnessed first-hand how the various religious changes taking place in England were affecting the English mercantile community operating in Castile. As a result, he was an important intermediary for other English merchants who arrived in Andalusia intending to embark on a trading career. Richard Hakluyt (former Clothworker scholar, renowned geographer and writer of The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, 1589–1600) provided the first published mention of John’s activities – and those of his son-in-law, the Citizen and Grocer Leonard Chilton – in The voyage of Robert Tomson merchant into New Spaine, in the yere 1555. This narrative described Sweetyng as a shipowner and one of the richest Englishmen in Cadiz, although no further details of his life or how he reached this status are revealed. Although Sweetyng’s origins are still unknown, we are certain that he was active in Andalusia from 1513, when records from Seville document him acting on behalf of other English merchants to export oil and soap to London and refer to him as ‘mercader yngles estante en Cádiz’. Due to the scarce records preserved in Cadiz for this period, the next source that places John in Cadiz is from the 1540s onwards. During this decade, he became one of the few English merchants permanently resident in Castile after the Anglican Schism, playing a key role within the English mercantile community and participating in large capitalist enterprises. For several years, he held the monopoly of the orchilla (a lichen from which purple dye is extracted), which came from the islands of Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Palma before it was unloaded in the port of Cadiz. Sweetyng was a key intermediary for the great London merchants in this period, both as a buyer
12 THE CLOTHWORKER | SPRING 2025