Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Michelborne, Edward (d.1611?)
MICHELBORNE, Sir EDWARD (d. 1611?), adventurer, belonged to the family of the name settled in Hampshire and Sussex. He was captain of a company of foot soldiers in the Low Countries in 1591 (Addit. MS. 5753, f. 250), and was continued in the queen's pay till September 1598, but he is not named on any service, except as commanding the Moon in the Islands' Voyage, under the Earl of Essex, in 1597 (Lediard, Naval Hist. p. 354). In 1593 he represented Bramber in parliament, and is usually described as of ‘Hamondes, Sussex.’ In 1599 he served with Essex in Ireland, and was knighted by him at Dublin on 5 Aug. (Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p. 210). On 16 Oct. 1599, Lord Buckhurst, the lord high treasurer, recommended him to the newly formed East India Company as ‘principal commander’ for their first voyage. The promoters declined, not wishing to employ any gentleman in a place of charge or command in the voyage (C. R. Markham, Voyages of Sir James Lancaster, p. ii). A year later Lord Buckhurst wrote again to the same effect, ‘using much persuasion to the company,’ who resolved as before, praying the lord treasurer ‘to give them leave to sort their business with men of their own quality’ (Cal. State Papers, East Indies, 3 Oct. 1600). Michelborne was, however, permitted to subscribe, and in the list of those to whom the charter was granted his name stands fourth (ib. 31 Dec. 1600). In the following February he was implicated in the Earl of Essex's rebellion, and was, in appearance at least, engaged in the detention of the lord keeper and lord chief justice on the 8th (ib. Dom. 10 Feb. 1601). On this charge he was examined before the commissioners (ib. 13 March 1601), when he was described as of Clayton, Suffolk. He seems to have been able to clear himself, but the East India Company thought it a favourable opportunity for getting rid of one of their ‘gentlemen,’ and resolved on 6 July 1601 that he was ‘disfranchised out of the freedom and privileges of the fellowship, and utterly disabled from taking any benefit or profit thereby’ (ib. East Indies).
Three years later, however, Michelborne obtained from the king a license ‘to discover the countries of Cathay, China, Japan, Corea, and Cambay, and the islands and countries thereto adjoining, and to trade with the people there, notwithstanding any grant or charter to the contrary’ (ib. 18 June 1604). On 5 Dec. 1604 he sailed in command of the Tiger, having with him as pilot John Davys [q. v.] of Sandridge. Though nominally undertaken for discovery and trade, plunder seems to have been the object of the voyage. At Bantam, 28 Oct.–2 Nov. 1605, he put a summary check on the insolence of the Dutch (Voyages and Works of John Davis, p. 174), but the service which he thus rendered the English merchants was more than counterbalanced by his plundering a richly laden China ship on her way to Java (ib. p. 183). The sad death of Davys, the representations of the merchants, and the improbability of further gain, led to his return to England, where he arrived on 9 July 1606. Three years after his departure from Bantam the agent of the company had still to write of the bad effects of his voyage; the position of the English there would be very dangerous, he said, if ‘any more such as he be permitted to do as he did’ (Cal. State Papers, East Indies, 4 Dec. 1608). Michelborne after his return seems to have been settled in or near London (ib. 19, 23 Feb. 1608), and to have died about 1611.
A son Edward, born in 1587, matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1604, and was a student at the Middle Temple in 1606.
[The account of the voyage to the East Indies is given in Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. i. lib. iii. p. 132. It is reprinted in The Voyages and Works of John Davis, edited for the Hakluyt Soc. by Captain (now Rear-admiral) A. H. Markham; see Foster's Alumni Oxon. and other authorities in the text.]