Richard Hakluyt

English geographer and historian

• Born: c. 1552
• Birthplace: Probably London, England
• Died: November 23, 1616
• Place of death: London, England

Hakluyt was an Elizabethan chronicler of English exploration and navigation who collected, translated, and published descriptions of early modern sea voyages. His most important work, Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, tells the story of the epic sea adventures of the English.

Early Life

Richard Hakluyt (RIHCH-ahrd HAK-lewt) descended from a family with property in Hereford. His father was a London merchant who died when his family was young, but he was sufficiently prosperous to provide for the education of his four sons.

Hakluyt was educated from 1564 to 1570 as a queen’s scholar at Westminster School in London. He and John Beaumont, who also became an author, were selected as outstanding scholars and received bequests in the will of Robert Nowell because of their intellectual promise. During his school years in London, he visited his older cousin and namesake, Richard Hakluyt. His kinsman was a barrister and a member of the Middle Temple, one of the four Inns of Court, which served as intellectual meeting places as well as law schools. The Middle Temple made Sir Francis Drake an honorary member after he returned from his trip around the world. Hakluyt later thanked his cousin for awakening his interest in cosmology and geography.

From Westminster, Hakluyt went on to Christ Church, Oxford University, where he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree on February 19, 1574, and a master of arts degree on January 27, 1575. Nearly 90 percent of those who received the master of arts degree took holy orders, and sometime between 1575 and 1583, Hakluyt took holy orders. His education, particularly in languages, laid the foundation for his later scholarly accounts of discoveries and sea voyages written in classical languages Greek and Latin as well as modern languages Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. After receiving his degrees, he seems to have lectured at Oxford on geography and cosmology, particularly about the use of maps, globes, and spheres.

Life’s Work

In 1582, Hakluyt published his Divers Voyages Touching the Discouerie of America , a work that brought him to the attention of the lord admiral, Lord Howard of Effingham. When Sir Edward Stafford, Effingham’s brother-in-law, was appointed English ambassador to France in 1583, he took Hakluyt with him as his chaplain. In addition to his official duties, Hakluyt used his time in Paris to collect information on Spanish and French voyages, focusing particularly on European voyages to the Americas. He collected this research into “A Discourse Concerning Western Discoveries.” It is known that “A Discourse Concerning Western Discoveries” was written in 1584 because he presented a manuscript copy to the queen, but it did not appear in print until the nineteenth century, when it appeared in Collections of the Maine Historical Society (1877). Hakluyt remained in Paris for two more years.

In London in 1586, he translated and had published an account of French exploration by René Goulaine de Laudonnière called A Notable History Containing Four Voyages Made by Certain French Captains Unto Florida (1587). In the same year, he published in Paris De orbe novo (the new world), translated from the Latin history of travel to the West Indies by Pietro Martire d’Anghiera. Hakluyt’s edition was translated into English as De Orbe Novo (1612) and reissued in 1625 as The History of the West-Indies . The translator, Michael Lok, paid tribute to Hakluyt for his labor and industry.

In 1588, Hakluyt returned to England in company with Lady Sheffield, Lord Howard’s sister. In 1589, he published his most important work, Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation . He dedicated his work to Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I’s principal secretary, who was responsible for foreign policy. Attributing to patriotism his motives for publishing these accounts of English voyages, Hakluyt says that while in France he became aware of the burgeoning literature on the discoveries and notable sea enterprises of other nations, but noted that the English were neglected or condemned because no one had compiled their reports. So he took it on himself to become the editor and narrator of the travels and adventures of his countryfolk.

In April, 1590, Hakluyt was appointed rector of Wetheringsett in Suffolk. He was twice married, first around 1594 and a second time in March, 1604, when he is described as fifty-two years old and as having been a widower for about seven years. During the period from 1598 to 1600, he refined his collection of manuscripts and published three volumes on the voyages under roughly the same title, making it difficult to order and describe specific volumes. This difficulty was compounded by contemporary politics.

The first volume celebrated on the title page the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, but it also paid tribute to the exploits of the earl of Essex in Cádiz in 1596. After Essex’s disgrace, Hakluyt, or the publisher, might have suppressed this reference to Essex. A new title page bearing the date 1599 was printed with a new dedication mentioning the defeat of the huge Spanish Armada only. Because of the revised date, it was assumed that this was a second edition, but only the title page was revised. More copies of the 1599 edition have survived, but it is substantively the same as that of 1598; only the title page changed. Modern editions of Hakluyt’s work appeared in 1809 and 1884.

Hakluyt remained occupied with geographical studies throughout his life and continued to collect and compile manuscripts. In 1601, he stipulated the principal trade places in the East Indies. He was also one of the chief promoters of the petition to King James for patents for the colonization of Virginia. He invested in colonization and was a promotor of and investor in the Virginia Company and the Northwest Passage Company.

In May, 1602, Hakluyt was appointed prebendary (clergyman receiving a stipend) of Westminster; he was made archdeacon the following year. In 1604, he was one of the chaplains of the Savoy.

His last published work was a translation from the Portuguese relating the travels and discoveries of Hernando de Soto, under the title Virginia Richly Valued (1609).

Hakluyt died on November 23, 1616, and was buried on November 26 in Westminster Abbey. He left one son, who was reported to have squandered his inheritance and discredited his name. Some of Hakluyt’s unpublished manuscripts came to the hands of Samuel Purchas, who incorporated them in an abridged form into his Purchas His Pilgrimes. Purchas published four illustrated volumes in 1625, paying tribute to Richard Hakluyt on the title page.

Significance

Richard Hakluyt’s travels throughout England, and his collecting and editing accounts of sea voyages, ensured the survival of the narrative history of English exploration. The Hakluyt Society was later founded in his honor and remains committed to editing and publishing works on the history of exploration and colonization.

Bibliography

Bridges, R. C., and P. E. H. Hair, eds. Compassing the Vaste Globe of the Earth. London: Hakluyt Society, 1996. Collections of essays on Richard Hakluyt and on the subsequent history of scholarship on navigation and exploration.

Kupperman, Karen Ordahl, ed. America in European Consciousness, 1493-1750. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. Includes a chapter reevaluating Hakluyt as a historian, titled “The New World and British Historical Thought: From Richard Hakluyt to William Robertson.”

Markham, Sir Clements. Richard Hakluyt: His Life and Work, with a Short Account of the Aims and Achievements of the Hakluyt Society. London: Bedford Press, 1896. Brief overview of Hakluyt’s life, with historical treatment of the society bearing his name.

Parks, George Bruner. Richard Hakluyt and the English Voyages. New York: American Geographical Society, 1928. Description of the Hakluyt family and of geography in Tudor England. Includes biographical assessment of Hakluyt and appreciative study of his legacy in the building of empires.

Quinn, David B. European Approaches to North America, 1450-1640. London: Ashgate, 1998. Collects essays from Quinn’s numerous articles on geography and colonization. Includes a brilliant article analyzing the editing of Hakluyt’s 1584 works on the Western discoveries.

Quinn, David B., and Alison M. Quinn, eds. The First Colonists: Documents on the Planting of the First English Settlements in North America, 1584-1590. 1973. Reprint. Raleigh: North Carolina Division of Archives, 1995. Collects documents relating to the Virginia voyages, including correspondence between Ralph Lane and Richard Hakluyt. Important source on Hakluyt and North American exploration.

Taylor, Eva, and Germaine Rimington, eds. The Writings and Correspondence of the Two Richard Hakluyts. 2 vols. London: Hakluyt Society, 1935. Modern edition of Divers Voyages, which includes autobiographical material and correspondence relating to exploration.

Watson, Foster. Richard Hakluyt. London: Sheldon Press, 1924. Chapter 2 gives the main facts of Hakluyt’s life in a discussion of his influence on British colonization.