Something to declare: America named after Welsh Customs man

The Observer [UK] ^ | Sunday April 28, 2002 | Amelia Hill

[aculeus]

America was named after a British Customs officer and not, as historians have long believed, the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who participated in Christopher Columbus's voyages to the New World.

Martin Waldseemuller, whose 1507 map of the world was the first to show the so-called Unknown Territory as a separate continent, has long been credited with naming the new land after the Florentine nobleman. But according to a new book by Rodney Broome - Amerike, The Briton Who Gave America its Name - the country was named in 1496, years before Vespucci's voyage, by John Cabot - the Bristol-based explorer who stumbled on the continent while searching for trading opportunities.

'Cabot didn't know he had discovered a separate continent during his earlier journey, but he mapped the land he saw in detail and named it after the main sponsor of his trip, a Welsh aristocrat called Richard Amerike,' said Broome. wealthy landowner and merchant trader who lived with his wife, Lucy, and their two teenage daughters in Bristol's Clifton Manor.

He built a profitable career by trading with merchants in Spain and Portugal in the latter half of the fifteenth century. In 1486 he was made King's Customs' Officer and was encouraged by the king to send his ships on journeys of discovery.

When Cabot was given permission by Henry VII in 1496 to challenge Columbus in the race to discover a trading route through the mysterious land mass that barred Europe's route to valuable trading opportunities in Asia, Amerike was in the perfect position to help, says Broome.

According to papers Broome discovered in Westminster Abbey's archives, Vespucci and Columbus used Cabot's maps secretly. 'As their fame grew and Cabot's declined, the misconception grew that it was they who had named the new land,' he said.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002

[aculeus]

He was a capitalist married to a woman named Lucy.

That works for me.

[swarthyguy]

Oh, come on John cabot was really an Arab seafarer, Al-Kabut.

[Erasmus]

But if this is true, I can no longer sing God Bless Vespucciland!

[concerned about politics]

My husband is part Welsh and part Hungarian. That would make him a Wellhung.

[Sonny M]

Thats actually pretty funny.

[smorgle]

Amerigo Ameriwent Amerigone

[tjg]

It is pretty funny, but sort of racy for a biblical scholar, don't you think?

[Elsie]

Not TOO racy, I hope...........

---

NIV Jeremiah 5:8
They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man's wife.

NIV Ezekiel 23:20
There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.

[Voronin]

Interesting... I've been up Cabot's Tower in Bristol (no puns please). It's on Brandon Hill and gives you a good view all over the city... Each side has a brass plaque with distances to all the major cities around the world (now isn't that exciting!).

VRN

[tjg]

Just goes to show, the Good Book has something for everybody.

[SunkenCiv]

These are some oldies I found and added the other day, listed alphabetically (ignoring the indefinite article), but didn't ping. Enjoy!

• America put on the map; First document to name country makes its debut
• Australians call for return of nation's 'birth certificate' from Britain
• Columbus critics miss the boat
• How America Got Its Name (not who you think!)
• MERKEL'S PACT WITH AMERICA: Germany Rediscovers the US as a Partner
• A New Theory On Mapping The New World
• The Oldest Map With The Word 'America' On It Was Just Found Between Two Geometry Books
• Well! Who did name the place?

Keyword: alwynruddock

• Something to declare: America named after Welsh Customs man
• How America Got Its Name (not who you think!)
• Anglosphere: Celebrating Wrong Italian? (Columbus vs. Cabot)
• Well! Who did name the place?
• The Discovery Of America: The Revolutionary Claims Of A Dead Historian
• Mystery Surrounds Possible Oldest Church in North America
• Briton found America in 1499
• Rewriting History: Alwyn Ruddock and John Cabot
• New evidence suggests Cabot may have known of New World before voyage
• New North America Viking Voyage Discovered

[MrB]

Nay! Nay!

[ameribbean expat]

Not if you’ve read Ezekiel 23:20 in the original Hebrew...

http://biblehub.com/ezekiel/23-20.htm

[Rebelbase]

Quite bragging.

[ZULU]

America sounds German to me.

[ApplegateRanch]

>>I’ve been up Cabot’s Tower ... Each side has a brass plaque with distances to all the major cities around the world (now isn’t that exciting!).<<

How did Cabot know the distances to all those cities, when several hadn’t even been founded yet? *<];-’)