Pirate Walks in Bristol

12. The Naming of America

Where does the name America come from? The answer will surprise you.

Ameryk's coat of Arms
included in Poyntz Coat of Arms

Every schoolchild in Bristol knows that America was named after Richard Amerike, a local fifteenth century merchant who backed John Cabot’s voyage in 1497 that sailed from Bristol and discovered the North American continent. Columbus after all only reached the Caribbean islands. We all knew America was not named after Amerigo Vespucci.

Indeed Bristol fishermen reached Newfoundland several years before Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

What is known for sure is that four very prominent Bristolians obtained a charter from England’s King Edward “to explore and find new foreign nations to trade with”, for a three year period, between June 1480 and June 1483. If they did succeed in locating Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, or Brassyle as they called it, they did not leave any traces that can be found today. However, evidence has surfaced over the years that they did indeed discover North America, and probably at least ten years before Columbus sailed to the Caribbean.

The Bristol fishermen were merchants, quietly processing fish and bringing it back to sell in Europe. It is indeed possible that American dried-fish was being sold in Seville even as Columbus left that city in 1492. Furthermore, Columbus may well have knowingly bought the fish. He knew that the Bristol merchants were crossing the Atlantic and he, in fact, thought that they had reached China without realizing where they were.

Unfortunately we cannot place any exact date on just when English ships reached Newfoundland, except to say that it was on a summer day sometime between 1479 and 1482.

Johanna Ameryk's tomb in St Mary Redcliffe church

There is evidence to support this conclusion.

There was a court-case in Bristol in 1482 that confirmed that at least one voyage was made under the charter made to find new fish trading partners.
Another document noted another attempt by a man named John Jay.
In 1955 a letter was found, written in 1497 to Christopher Columbus that referred to these early voyages and a successful one, and the writer indicated that Columbus knew about them. This would indicate that Columbus must have become aware of them by the late 1480s, when he was trying to get sponsorship for his voyage.
Columbus was familiar with Bristol and Bristol ships and had encountered them in 1477 when he sailed to Iceland himself.
The Spanish ambassador in London was aware that Bristol merchants were sending two, three or four ships every year from as early as 1490 to 1497 in pursuit of new trading partners.

John Cabot, with very similar ambitions to Columbus, also knew about these voyages and he went to Bristol and asked to be taken to Newfoundland on a Bristol ship. The merchants took him there on the “Matthew” and on 24 June 1497 they landed at a beach on North America, probably in Maine. Cabot was an explorer who wrote about his voyage and it is he who gets the credit for being the first European to stand on North American soil.

While all this was unfolding another explorer, scientist and a prolific writer named Amerigo Vespucci was surveying coastlines in south America and accumulating all the maps and documents that he could, about the transatlantic discoveries.

He obtained copies of both Columbus’s and Cabot’s maps and this information was all consolidated into a World Map produced by Martin Waldseemuller in a mass produced map in 1507. And Vespucci got credited with being the origin of the name “America”.

One of Bristol’s major merchants, a local politician and aristocrat, was directly involved in this saga for twenty years between 1480 and 1500. His name was Richard Amerike, also ap Meric, a name very close to America, and almost certainly the real source of the word.

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Indeed Bristol fishermen reached Newfoundland several years before Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

Unfortunately we cannot place any exact date on just when English ships reached Newfoundland, except to say that it was on a summer day sometime between 1479 and 1482.

There is evidence to support this conclusion.

There was a court-case in Bristol in 1482 that confirmed that at least one voyage was made under the charter made to find new fish trading partners.
Another document noted another attempt by a man named John Jay.
In 1955 a letter was found, written in 1497 to Christopher Columbus that referred to these early voyages and a successful one, and the writer indicated that Columbus knew about them. This would indicate that Columbus must have become aware of them by the late 1480s, when he was trying to get sponsorship for his voyage.
Columbus was familiar with Bristol and Bristol ships and had encountered them in 1477 when he sailed to Iceland himself.
The Spanish ambassador in London was aware that Bristol merchants were sending two, three or four ships every year from as early as 1490 to 1497 in pursuit of new trading partners.