VIII - Edward Fenton's Notebook and Other Papers Relating to the Expedition of 1590

Summary

Captain Edward Fenton is chiefly remembered as commander of a notoriously futile and ill-executed expedition to the South Atlantic in 1582– 83. Fenton himself seems to have been promoted above his competence, and soon lost control. He turned with particular anger and eventually violence against his Lieutenant-General, the younger William Hawkins (Sir John's nephew). It was an episode which Hakluyt thought best forgotten, since he drastically edited his only narrative of it (by Fenton's Vice-Admiral, Luke Ward) for the standard edition of Principall Navigations. When Fenton's own journal of the voyage at last found an editor, it would be given a title which enduringly associates Fenton with troublesome.

Fenton was shunned on his return. But he was an intelligent and cultivated man with friends at court, and he managed to survive his disgrace. Like many another he redeemed himself by war service, and commanded Mary Rose in 1588. Significantly he retained the regard of Sir John Hawkins. They were connected by marriage, since Fenton's wife Thomasine and Katherine, Lady Hawkins, were sisters – the daughters and co-heiresses of the previous Navy Treasurer Benjamin Gonson. So it was quite natural that when Hawkins, busy at the end of Armada year, wanted to delegate his routine work, he asked the Queen to appoint Fenton. He was duly named deputy Treasurer for the year 1 January to 31 December 1589. The account book here printed [37] shows Fenton exercising this charge during that year and the next. The extension of Fenton's deputyship into 1590 is not formally recorded, but Hawkins's absence at sea for much of that year adequately accounts for it. Nevertheless, though Hawkins attempted to resign the Treasurership on at least three occasions between 1590 and 1594, there was no suggestion that Fenton would be the appropriate successor.

This is a personal aide-memoire, not a formal account. It shows sums received from Exchequer, and the expenses which Navy Treasury's could set against that income by way of discharging its liability. Within its limited compass it reflects a considerable range of naval activity in the early years of the Spanish war. The Armada itself is recalled with a payment for bringing the most celebrated trophy of victory into the Thames.