John Guy (governor)

John Guy (died c. March 1629) was an English merchant adventurer, colonist and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1624. He was the first Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland and led the first attempt to establish a colony on the island.

Guy was the eldest son and second child of Thomas Guy, a cordwainer (shoemaker) of Bristol. He was born on the 25/12/1568, and baptized a week later on the 01/01/1569 at St. Mary le Port church, in what is now Bristol. He spent his youth growing up amongst his siblings, and was well educated for his times, he managed to in later life write poetry in Latin. He was apprenticed to a Yeoman farmer, and on his parents deaths, he inherited the family shoemaking business, he had various farming interests, and served as a factor representing the interests of the Bristol merchant community overseas for a period in Spain, where he mastered the art of navigation. Guy became a merchant and was admitted to the corporation of the city in 1603, as a Councillor of Bristol. He was also appointed the Sheriff of Bristol for the year 1605–06. During the emergency of 1605 when the country was threatened with invasion from overseas, he was appointed one of Rear-Admirals in the Royal Navy, as Bristol was at the time of the two main naval ports in the country. In 1607 he was also appointed Surveyor of Bristol, a post which gave him the responsibility for obtaining provisions for the naval vessels that visited the port of Bristol. Source information - Bristol City Council Records

In 1608 Guy and other members of the Society of Merchant Venturers, decided to act upon a letter received by the mayor from Chief Justice Sir John Popham concerning the colonisation of Newfoundland. Since John Cabot had discovered the island and Sir Humphrey Gilbert had formally taken possession of it for Elizabeth I of England, the merchants of the city had a special interest in Newfoundland, but there had been little attempt to exploit and colonise the island. The merchants decided not to embark on the scheme without the co-operation of King James VI of Scotland and I of England, which was forthcoming. Guy visited the island in 1608 to scout possible locations for a settlement, selecting Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador (present day Cupids) as the site of the colony. In 1609, he put forward a proposal "to animate the English to plant [or colonise] in Newfoundland." The merchants of Bristol and London took up the idea with enthusiasm and a list of contributions was made out with Guy and others subscribing twenty marks a year for five years. The idea was popular with members of the court. Amongst the 50 shareholders were John Guy and his younger brother Philip Guy, in effect, Guy had the largest shareholding invested in the venture. On 27 April 1610 James I granted a charter to Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton], Keeper of the Privy Seal, and others including John Guy and his brother Philip Guy, which incorporated them as the "Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the Cities of London and Bristol, for the purpose of colonising Newfoundland, and comprehending as their sphere of action the southern and eastern parts of the new found land between 46° and 52° N. L."

...
Wikipedia