This is the second of a series of blog posts exploring the experiences and influence of British expatriates in the Maghreb in the second half of the seventeenth century. The first can be found here.

“twas Halsion dayes att Tunis; when you were first possessed of y^t Consulshipp – Alli Beys favour to our nation; (giving a prospect of your most proffitable residence theire) was att that time in itts Zenith – att this time; wee used our Intresse for your settlement theire and prevailed in our desires; the combustions y^t broke out quickly after; were then not dreamt of”

Francis Barrington and Benjamin Steele to Thomas Goodwyn, 3 June-19 July 1692, FO 335/9/13

“I have not bene yett att Lincolne by reason of the cold moist weather, not verry agreeable to us who have bene used to a warme Country w^ch I thinke is pleasantest, & often makes me remember what we discours’d att Tunis”

Nathaniel Lodington to Thomas Goodwyn, 14 January 1700, FO 335/14/4

“Sr. since yo^r departure I have likewise often reflected on our (outwardly unconcerned) parting…had not my taking leave been soe abrupt I must either have accompanied yo^u to Tunis, or else seizing on yo^u in ye boat, forcibly brought yo^u ashore agen, which I wish with all my soul I had so done…heaven bee my judge that I parted from a deere, dicscreet, accomplished friend, good humoured man, and an able experienc’t counsellor…in a minutes times yo^u may imberque for this Place to bee rec^d by me w^th inseparable embraces being here melancholly and in great need of your assistance”

Thomas Baker to Thomas Goodwyn, 27 February 1680, FO 335/2/3

In this multi-part introductory section, we’ll take a look at the various kinds of free expatriates who came to live in the ‘English houses’ in the Maghreb during the second half of the seventeenth century, thinking particularly about their motivations for coming, and how they might have managed their lives while there.

Let’s begin with the best-known group: the merchant-consuls appointed by the Crown, who managed treaties, redeemed British captives, and oversaw British commerce in the Regencies. There had been informal consuls before (selected out of existing expatriate communities), but the consular regime was officially cemented from 1662, when Admiral Sir John Lawson concluded the first major treaties between Britain and the three Regencies. Unlike elsewhere in Europe and the Mediterranean, where merchant-trained British consuls managed the business affairs of the expatriate community, and upper-class British ambassadors managed diplomacy with the courts and nobility, these consuls took responsibility for both, giving them a lot of power over Britain’s relations with the Regencies.

Consuls were officially paid by the government (either by a salary, or by a tax on goods imported and exported by British ships), but most also engaged in trade with Britain, Europe and other parts of the Maghreb, and made money in other ways too. Most of them stayed for a very long time, and had existing ties to the Maghreb before becoming consul. During the period I’m researching, roughly the fifty years from 1660-1710, there were six long-term consuls in Algiers (plus two who lasted less than two years), five consuls in Tunis, and five in Tripoli. Most of these consuls also had British merchants living with them, who sometimes became their successors, other times their partners, and sometimes their rivals or enemies. Some, particularly later on in the period, had wives (or mistresses) and children living with them, and all had an assortment of domestic servants or apprentices, as well as chancellors (secretaries) and dragomen (translator-mediators). These other residents could be British Christians or Muslims, local Maghrebis, or other Europeans – we’ll meet some of them over the following weeks.

Most of what historians have written about the consuls and merchants has come from one important source – the State Papers Foreign, Barbary States (SP 71), which is housed at the British National Archives in London. These documents, seven large volumes for my period, contain lots of letters and a few other documents sent mostly by consuls to the British Secretary of State (essentially the Foreign Secretary), and are really helpful for understanding the official duties and occupational challenges that consuls faced, and how the government might have perceived them. However, they don’t tell us much about the expatriates’ business enterprises, personal lives, connections with other parts of the Maghreb and Europe, and the less legitimate activities they undertook. From incidental mentions in SP 71, and deeper but more specific detail few other places, we had little glimpses, but nothing that would help us to make big conclusions.

For my research, I’m making the first major historical study of a massive collection of business letters, personal letters and financial records that were collected by the consuls in Tunis from the 1670s onwards. These letters were shipped back from Tunis much later, and so they were stored in a different section of The National Archives (the Foreign Office, FO 335), where we would only expect to find much later material. These documents were initially collected by Thomas Goodwyn, who lived in the Italian port of Livorno from the 1660s before visiting Tripoli in 1679 and then moving to Tunis, where he was consul from 1683 until 1698, and went home in 1700. Goodwyn saved nearly 3,000 letters he was sent, as well as some he wrote, and a lot of his financial documents. We also have some letters sent to his apprentices Kinard Delabere (in Tunis 1687-90) and James Chetwood (in Tunis 1693-1699, consul 1698-99), and his successor John Goddard (consul 1700-11).

These letters came to Tunis from all over the Maghreb, the Mediterranean and Britain, and give us insight into a lot of the things missing from SP 71. They allow us to understand better how deeply connected, skillful and influential British expatriates were, how they embraced the benefits and coped with the challenges of life in the Maghreb, and how their prejudices, morals and pragmatic ambitions were confronted and shaped by their experiences.

Image credit: Gerard van Keulen, De stad Haven en Mouillie van Algiers neven Desselfs Kastellen (Amsterdam, 1720). Det Kongelige Bibliotek Copehnhagen: http://www5.kb.dk/maps/kortsa/2012/jul/kortatlas/object65823/en/