Posted on 05/24/2003 6:27:48 AM PDT by scouse
There are two key characters in this story, John Cabot, a sailor, and Richard Amerike, a Bristol business man. Unfortunately, neither left much of themselves for us to see or read: no portrait, nothing in their own writing, no detailed contemporary record of themselves or their work. There is, however, enough recorded to know that they both achieved things of lasting importance; one very directly, the other less obviously but in its way even more portentous: Cabot awakened the world to the existence of the North American continent, and Amerike gave his name and badge to what, in time, was to become one of the great nations of the world.
Macdonald
Page 4 of 5
The Stars and Stripes of the American flag Since the flag of the United States of America is based on the design of Amerike's coat of arms, it is more than probable that its origins lie with Amerike and not with George Washington, whose family also bore arms of the Stars and Stripes.
According to the American Flag Research Centre in Massachusetts the heraldic origin of the American flag is not positively known; archives in the British Library confirm that the Stars and Stripes was the coat of arms of the Ap Merike family - and that they pre-date Washington's connection with the continent by 300 years.
'...little did (Amerike) know that the Stars and Stripes on his personal banner would eventually become an emblem known the world over.' Amerike's coat of arms can be seen in the Lord Mayor's Chapel on College Green in Bristol as part of the Poyntz crest, a relative having married into that wealthy, land-owning family.
Or you could try this place
http://www.isleofavalon.co.uk/GlastonburyArchive/healhurt/hhn-20c.html
My own interest in this was aroused in 1986 when I met a farmer in Cornwall (SW Britain) on whose land lies the ancient Merry Maidens stone circle. He recounted that, when grubbing up an old earthen field boundary some years before, he had found a deeply-buried greenstone arrowhead which his son then took to school to show his teacher.
The teacher sent it to the British Museum for identification, and the reply returned that it was at least 5,000 years old and derived from specific rock deposits in Minnesota.
The possibility of this being a hoax was minuscule: there is little point planting evidence in a place where it is unlikely to be found or to be accepted as valid evidence – hoaxers need a pay-off. The farmer had little interest in prehistory – he was a classic farmer-type! What was interesting to me was that this evidence suggested west-to-east travel, from the ‘New’ to the ‘Old’ World, while one would tend to expect east-to-west travel, if anything. West Cornwall was frequented in ancient times by tin traders from the Mediterranean, particularly Phoenicians.
By the way . . . I vote for Amerigo. I volunteer at a Day Care center in my neighborhood to give a short history lesson to pre-schoolers. Amerigo is in my lesson plan . . . so it's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Probably a Druid.
I think the BBC claims attributing the name of America to a "Richard Amerike" need to be viewed with a ton of salt.
For one thing, Vespucci was in a position as a mapmaker to do what he is given credit for.
As for this Amerike, who the heck is he?
Or maybe Columbo learned from the cod fishermen of Bristol and of Portugal, who seem to have been fishing and drying fish on Newfoundland for 50 years before him.
And of course, John Cabot was really Caboto, another Italian navigator, though that may not please some old line New England families.
So9
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