Richard Amerike

Richard ap Meryk, anglicised to Richard Amerike (or Ameryk) (c. 1440–1503) was an Anglo-Welsh merchant, royal customs officer and, at the end of his life, sheriff of Bristol. Several claims have been made for Amerike by popular writers of the late twentieth century. One was that he was the major funder of the voyage of exploration launched from Bristol by the Venetian John Cabot in 1497, and that Amerike was the owner of Cabot's ship, the Matthew. The other claim revived a theory first proposed in 1908 by a Bristolian scholar and amateur historian, Alfred Hudd. Hudd's theory, greatly elaborated by later writers, suggested that the continental name America was derived from Amerike's surname in gratitude for his sponsorship of Cabot's successful discovery expedition to the 'New World'. However, neither claim is backed up by hard evidence, and the consensus view is that America is named after Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer.

'Amerike' is an anglicised spelling of the Welsh ap Meuric, ap Meurig or ap Meryk, which means "son of Meurig". It was, however, only one of the many different ways that the customs officer's name was rendered, even in official documents. The 'Amerike' version was noted by some modern historians because it looked like 'America' and because this was how his name was spelled on a tomb brass created for his daughter in 1538.

Ap Meryk's place and date of birth are unknown. One modern author suggests that Richard Amerike was born in 1445 at Meryk Court, Weston under Penyard, near Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. He may have been born earlier than this, since one of Amerike's daughters, Joan, was married to a future lawyer, John Broke, by April 1479. While there were certainly Merricks in and around Weston under Penyard, Richard Amerike's genealogy and connection to Merrick Court have not been verified. The only contemporary document to refer to his background states that he was from Chepstow, a Welsh port close to Bristol.

Little is known of the first thirty years of Ap Meryk's life. His wife, married at an unknown date, was called Lucy. The greater part of Amerike's adult life was spent in, or near, Bristol. This was one of the great cities and ports of medieval England, possibly second only to London. Amerike prospered as a merchant and, after 1485, as a gentleman and an officer of the Crown. He is first found in Bristol customs accounts in 1472, trading in Irish fish. The published customs accounts of 1479-1480 show him continuing to trade to Ireland, but also participating in Bristol's valuable trade with Portugal and Bordeaux. In other years he also traded to Spain. Amerike was a burgess of Bristol by at least the mid-1470s. Becoming a burgess would have admitted him as a both a freeman of the city, and marked him as a member of its political elite. By this time he was sufficiently wealthy to lend £50 towards the ransom from Breton pirates of a great-nephew of William Canynges. A Bristol tax return of 1484 records that his household servants included an Icelander. He was also buying land. By the early 1490s Amerike's main landed estate, acquired by purchase, seems to have been in Long Ashton on the Somerset side of the River Avon.

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