The Bonds of Newbury and London
SHIPS
The LONDON BONDS, the Merchant Adventurers, owned many ships. Five took part against the ARMADA, 1588. The SALOMAN. The BARKE BONDE. The PRIMROSE. The JONAS. The FORTUNE. The Saloman, a "very hot ship", was owned chiefly by William Bond, (died 1576), and was used by Hawkins on his first voyage to the Coast of Guinea. The BARKE BONDE was finally used as one of the eight fireships used to get the Spanish fleet out of Calais harbour. No explosives were put aboard, so that crews could be left to steer the ships. But the Spaniards not knowing this, cut their cables and sailed, many of them being destroyed by the storms.
A William Bond, possibly of the same family, built, or at least was paid for the fitting out of,Henry VIII's great ship, the Henri Grace a Dieu, or Great Harry, the first real battleship built in England. She had a crew of 700. (from Dr. Bonds book).
The
GOLDEN HIND,first called the PELICAN, was one of William Bond's ships.
She was captured by the French but later retaken. Then Drake chose her
for his flagship on his voyage round the world. She was the only ship out
of five to get round. She was swift and stable. For over 100 years she
was kept at Deptford as a national shrine. There is a chair made of her
timbers in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
Thomas and Essex Henry Bond, sons of George Bond and Eleanor Chitty, both captained the "Royal Admiral", East Indiaman, Essex Henry Bond meeting his future wife Mary Young when he called at St. Helena in the ship.
I believe that George Bond, who started life as a musician, was later in life Master of the East India Dockyard.
His grandfather, John, was a Turkey Merchant, and a Director of the East India Company, and later a banker. John's father, Benjamin, was a Turkey Merchant, and so was the elder brother of John, also a Benjamin, father of Benjamin Bond- Hopkins.
William Minet, husband of Caroline Bond, was one of the
engineering officers on the "GREAT EASTERN" the largest ship
in the world for many years. Arthur St. Quintin Bond was in the Merchant
Navy, and was accidentally killed on his ship, by a fall into a hold.
