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The Royal African Company

The English company that held the castles and factories of the Guinea coast at its own charge and kept the trade to itself until a statute of 1698 opened it to any subject paying ten per cent towards the forts. Its chief fort at Cape Coast was where Bartholomew Roberts's captured crew were tried in 1722.

FromDate not establishedToDate not establishedAlso writtenRoyal African Company; The African Company (the name used of the body by Sir Thomas Lynch from Jamaica in 1684, Calendar of State Papers Colonial vol. 11, item 1,759, and by Atkins of the chief fort at Cape Corso); the present Royal African Company of England (the style used in the Act to settle the trade to Africa, Statutes of the Realm vol. 7); our English Company (John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, 1735, of the establishment at Cape Corso)

The Act to settle the trade to Africa, of the ninth year of William III, recites that the Company alone had paid for the forts and castles then on that coast, and was paying for them still. From 24 June 1698 the Act bound it to maintain and defend all of them.3,4

The castles on the coast

John Atkins, surgeon of HMS Swallow, saw the Guinea coast in 1721. Cape Corso on the Gold Coast held "the principal Fort and Factory" of the English company, where its ships called for orders. Inside the castle he found the Governor, styled Director General, two merchants, a secretary, a chaplain, a surgeon, factors, writers, artificers and a company of soldiers. Dixcove, Succonda and Anamaboo were called factories, but each lodged two or three men sent down from Cape Corso, who took a commission on their trade above their salary.5,6,7

Large vaults lay in the area of the quadrangle, with an iron grate at the surface to let in light and air. The enslaved were kept in them, Atkins wrote, "chained and confined there till a Demand comes". All were "marked with a burning Iron upon the right Breast", D. Y., for the Duke of York.8

Alexander Cleeve wrote to the Company from James Island in Gambia in June 1688. He had thought it prudent, he said, "to put myself in a state of defence" until a French man of war sailed away. She then met the Company's ship Lady Mary at Goffoda and "treacherously captured her".9

The Act that opened the trade

By accounts Atkins took for "authentick", the trade gained England 900,000 pounds a year, of which teeth, camwood, wax and gold made only 100,000, the rest enslaved people. The Company had imported 46,396 enslaved people between 1680 and 1688, too few for the plantations, said those who wished it ill success. Interlopers "crept in, and contended for a Share". The Company answered that its patent was being broken, and that it kept forts and garrisons at great charge "for awing and subjecting the Natives to trade".10,11,12

After that date any subject might trade between Cape Mount and the Cape of Good Hope on a duty of ten per cent by value on the goods exported. The separate trader was to have the same protection from the castles as the Company had, and liberty to plant factories of his own, with no hindrance from the Company's agents.13,14

The duties were to go to the forts and to nothing else, the account kept in a book lying open at the African House in London. The settlement was to run thirteen years.15,16

Atkins calls it an Act of 1697; the printed roll puts it in the ninth year of the reign. In the eight years that followed the Company imported 17,760 enslaved people to the West Indies and the separate traders 71,268. The ten per cent brought in 87,465 pounds in the first ten years. At a disadvantage against the "new Inmates", the Company resolved to make the best of that money "by lessening their Expence about the Forts". By his own day the forts stood on 10,000 pounds a year from the government.17,18,19,20

The same Act had bound the Company to supply those forts with men, artillery, ammunition and provision. Atkins says it withdrew all supplies from its garrisons, "leaving them to subsist by their own Management or starve". Gambia fort, with twelve men in it, was taken by a privateer of eight guns in 1709. Sierra Leone had thirteen men, Sherbro four.21,22

In the plantations

Sir Thomas Lynch wrote from Jamaica in June 1684 that "The Royal Company now begins to supply us well", two ships lying in port with seven hundred enslaved people aboard. Interloping would cease altogether, he thought, if the Lords of the Admiralty ordered their captains to seize interlopers. The African Company, he added, "ought to have a man-of-war on the coast of Africa also."23,24

One clause forbade any governor, deputy governor or judge in the plantations to act as a factor or agent for the Company in the sale of any enslaved person, on forfeit of five hundred pounds. Sir William Beeston told the Council of Trade on 5 December 1698 that the clause had reached Jamaica and thrown it into such disorder that he saw "nothing but that law and justice must cease among us and therewith the King's authority". Several officers had resigned already.25,26

The pirates and the castle

The Swallow and the Weymouth were stored for what Atkins calls "a double Voyage" down the Guinea coast, to meet the pirates who "did then very much infest those Parts" and were destroying the English trade and factories. Bartholomew Roberts's men took the King Solomon and a trading vessel at Cape Appollonia early in January, both the Company's. John Jessop's indictment charges that the brigantine Hannibal was taken by force from John Wingfield and others in the Company's service; Thomas Castles swore that the Diligence sloop was taken two leagues from Assinee on 5 January.27,28,29,30

Charles Johnson has Howell Davis walking into Gambia Castle as a Liverpool merchant and taking possession "without the least Hurry or Confusion, or so much as a Man lost of either Side". He also makes George Lowther second mate of the Company's Gambia Castle, and has him carry her off and rename her the Delivery.31,32

At Sestos in August 1721 Roberts's men kept the Company frigate Onslow, "continued to her the Name" of the Royal Fortune and mounted her with forty guns. Off Cape Corso the castle guns drove off a fire ship sent against two ships sheltering under the walls.33,34

HMS Swallow destroyed Roberts's squadron off Cape Lopez on 10 February 1722, Roberts being killed, and the prisoners were carried to Cape Coast Castle. A vice-admiralty court opened there on 28 March under Captain Mungo Heardman, Ogle disqualified as the captor. Atkins was at the trials for six weeks and, as he put it, "treated very civilly".2,35,36

The condemned men who petitioned were given leave to sign indentures with the Captain General of the Gold Coast for seven years' servitude at the Company's settlements in Africa. Of the men tried, twenty went to servitude, seventy-four were acquitted and fifty-two executed.37,38

The African Companies records, T 70, at Kew hold the establishment lists and the accounts. They would settle what the castles cost and how many people the Company shipped; none of this page rests on them. The London board, a Governor, a Sub-Governor, a Deputy Governor and a Court of Assistants, with an Agent-General on the coast, comes from a note on those records that nobody has checked against the books; Atkins found the man at Cape Corso styled Director General. His figures were second hand. The charter is missing too, and what became of the men indentured to the Company lies in the 1723 proceedings, the High Court of Admiralty file and the Colonial Office papers.

What the evidence does not settle

End of the Royal African Company's monopoly

  • 1698 Act ended the Company's exclusive monopoly
  • 1708 insolvency marked the effective end of monopoly

Branding of enslaved people with the Company mark

  • Enslaved people were branded with the DY or RAC mark

Cape Coast Castle trial casualty numbers

  • 272 men were captured at the 1722 trial

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. The Company was governed by a Governor, a Sub-Governor and a Deputy Governor with a Court of Assistants as the governing board elected by the shareholding membership, and exercised authority on the West African coast through an Agent-General with chief factors and factors stationed at the castles and lesser factories, who managed trade, garrisons and diplomacy with African polities. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Archive research note: research note on the African Companies records, T 70, The National Archives
  2. On 10 February 1722 HMS Swallow under Captain Chaloner Ogle destroyed Bartholomew Roberts's squadron off Cape Lopez, Roberts being killed, after which the prisoners were carried to the Royal African Company's headquarters at Cape Coast Castle for a vice-admiralty trial in 1722. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Museum account: Death of Bartholomew Roberts (Royal Museums Greenwich)
  3. The Act to settle the trade to Africa recites that the forts and castles then on the coast of Africa had been and still were maintained at the sole cost and charge of the present Royal African Company of England. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7: William III, 1697-8, An Act to settle the Trade to Africa (chapter XXVI), preamble to section I.
  4. The same Act binds the Company from 24 June 1698 to maintain, support and defend all such forts and castles as it then held or should afterwards purchase or erect. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7: William III, 1697-8, An Act to settle the Trade to Africa (chapter XXVI), section I.
  5. John Atkins describes Cape Corso on the Gold Coast as the principal fort and factory of the English Company, to which its ships constantly resorted. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the section headed Cabo Corso.
  6. Atkins found at Cape Corso Castle the Governor, styled Director General, two merchants, a secretary, a chaplain, a surgeon, factors, writers, artificers and a company of soldiers. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the dated coasting notes at 16 June.
  7. Atkins says that Dixcove, Succonda and Anamaboo, though called factories, each held only two or three men sent down from Cape Corso, who took a commission on their trade over and above their salary. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the dated coasting notes at 14 to 16 June.
  8. Atkins describes large vaults in the area of the quadrangle at Cape Corso Castle, with an iron grate at the surface to let in light and air, where the enslaved were chained until a demand came, all marked with a burning iron upon the right breast, D. Y., for the Duke of York. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the section headed Cabo Corso.
  9. Alexander Cleeve wrote to the Company from James Island in Gambia in June 1688 that he had put himself in a state of defence until a French man of war sailed away, and that she then met the Company's ship Lady Mary at Goffoda and treacherously captured her. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 12 (1685-1688), item 1,803, Alexander Cleeve to the Royal African Company, James Island, Gambia, 20 June 1688.
  10. Atkins reports that by authentic accounts the trade had gained England 900,000 pounds a year, of which teeth, camwood, wax and gold were only 100,000 and the rest slaves. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the account of the African Company.
  11. Atkins reports that the Company imported 46,396 enslaved people between 1680 and 1688, which those who wished it ill success said was too few for the plantations, so that interlopers crept in and contended for a share, which the Company represented as contrary to the privileges of its patent. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the account of the African Company.
  12. Atkins gives the Company's answer to the interlopers, that it did supply enough for demand and maintained forts and garrisons at a great charge for awing and subjecting the natives to trade. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the account of the African Company.
  13. The Act opened the African trade between Cape Mount and the Cape of Good Hope to all subjects as well as to the Company, on payment of a duty of ten pounds per centum ad valorem on the goods exported. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7, pp. 393-397, William III, 1697-8, An Act to settle the Trade to Africa (9 and 10 Will. III c. 26), the enacting clause opening the Cape Mount to Cape of Good Hope stretch.
  14. The Act gives every subject trading to the coast and paying the duty the same protection, security and defence for person, ship and goods from the forts and castles as the Company had, with liberty to settle factories of his own within the limits without hindrance or molestation from the Company or its agents. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7: William III, 1697-8, An Act to settle the Trade to Africa (chapter XXVI), section XIV.
  15. The Act appropriates the duties to the forts and castles and requires the account of them to be kept in a book lying open at the African House in London, to be perused at all seasonable times by all persons trading to Africa. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7: William III, 1697-8, An Act to settle the Trade to Africa (chapter XXVI), section XVI.
  16. The Act was to continue in force thirteen years and from thence to the end of the next session of Parliament and no longer. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7: William III, 1697-8, An Act to settle the Trade to Africa (chapter XXVI), section XXI.
  17. Atkins dates the Act that gave private traders their liberty on allowing the Company ten per cent to 1697, where the statute in the printed roll stands under the ninth year of William III. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the account of the African Company, against Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7, pp. 393-397.
  18. Atkins reports that in the eight years after the Act the Company imported 17,760 enslaved people to the West Indies while the separate traders imported 71,268. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the account of the African Company.
  19. Atkins reports that the Company's ten per cent amounted to 87,465 pounds in the first ten years, and that, at a great disadvantage with the new inmates, it resolved to make the best it could of that money by lessening its expense about the forts. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the account of the African Company.
  20. Atkins reports that by his own day the Company supported its forts on an annual allowance from the government of 10,000 pounds. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the account of the African Company.
  21. The same Act requires the Company to supply its forts and castles with men, artillery, ammunition and provision and all other necessaries and incident charges. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7: William III, 1697-8, An Act to settle the Trade to Africa (chapter XXVI), section I.
  22. Atkins reports that the Company withdrew all supplies from its garrisons, leaving them to subsist by their own management or starve, and that Gambia fort, with twelve men in it, was taken by a privateer of eight guns in 1709, Sierra Leone having thirteen men and Sherbro four. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the account of the African Company.
  23. Sir Thomas Lynch wrote from Jamaica in June 1684 that the Royal Company now began to supply the island well, two ships lying in port with seven hundred enslaved people aboard. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 11 (1681-1685), item 1,759, Sir Thomas Lynch to the Lord President of the Council, Jamaica, 20 June 1684.
  24. In the same letter Lynch wrote that interloping would entirely cease if the Lords of the Admiralty ordered their captains to seize interlopers, and that the African Company ought to have a man of war on the coast of Africa also. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 11 (1681-1685), item 1,759, Lynch to the Lord President of the Council, 20 June 1684.
  25. The Act forbids any governor, deputy governor or judge in the American plantations to be a factor or agent for the Company in the sale or disposal of any negroes, on forfeit of five hundred pounds. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Statute: Statutes of the Realm, vol. 7: William III, 1697-8, An Act to settle the Trade to Africa (chapter XXVI), section XX.
  26. Governor Sir William Beeston reported to the Council of Trade and Plantations on 5 December 1698 that the clause had reached Jamaica and put the island in such disorder that he saw nothing but that law and justice must cease among them, and the King's authority with them, several officers having resigned already. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Calendared state papers: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, vol. 16 (1697-1698), item 1,028, Governor Sir William Beeston to Council of Trade and Plantations, Jamaica, 5 December 1698.
  27. Atkins says the Swallow and the Weymouth were stored for a double voyage down the coast of Guinea to meet with the pirates, who did then very much infest those parts and destroy the English trade and factories. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the opening of the voyage narrative.
  28. Johnson says that at the beginning of January Roberts's company took the King Solomon at Cape Appollonia, with twenty men in their boat, and a trading vessel with her, both belonging to the Company. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), the chapter of Captain Bartholomew Roberts.
  29. The indictment of John Jessop at Cape Coast Castle charges that the Hannibal brigantine, belonging to the Royal African Company, was violently and unlawfully wrested from John Wingfield and others sailing in the Company's service. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial print: A Full and Exact Account, of the Tryal of all the Pyrates, Lately Taken by Captain Ogle, on Board the Swallow Man of War, on the Coast of Guinea (London, 1723), the indictment of John Jessop.
  30. Thomas Castles deposed on oath that on 5 January, about two leagues from Assinee, the Diligence sloop belonging to the African Company was taken by Roberts and his consort. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial print: A Full and Exact Account, of the Tryal of all the Pyrates, Lately Taken by Captain Ogle, on Board the Swallow Man of War, on the Coast of Guinea (London, 1723), the trial of Richard Hardy, deposition of Thomas Castles.
  31. Charles Johnson relates that Howell Davis took Gambia Castle by a ruse of posing as a Liverpool merchant, getting possession of the fort without so much as a man lost of either side. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), chapter VIII, Of Captain Howel Davis, and his Crew.
  32. Johnson relates that George Lowther, second mate of the Royal African Company's ship Gambia Castle, carried her off and renamed her the Delivery. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), chapter XII, Of Capt. George Lowther, and his Crew.
  33. Roberts's company took the Royal African Company frigate Onslow at Sestos on the Guinea coast at the beginning of August 1721, continued to her the name of the Royal Fortune and mounted her with forty guns. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative and trial print: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), the Roberts chapter, with the trial proceedings of Roberts's crew at Cape Coast Castle, March to April 1722.
  34. Johnson relates that pirates made a fire ship of a vessel they had lately taken and attempted to burn two ships sheltering under Cape Corso Castle, and were driven off by the castle guns. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), the chapter of Capt. Edward England, And his Crew.
  35. The court that tried the men taken in the Ranger and the Royal Fortune was opened at Cape Coast Castle on 28 March 1722 under Captain Mungo Heardman as President, Ogle being disqualified from sitting as the captor. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Trial print: A Full and Exact Account, of the Tryal of all the Pyrates, Lately Taken by Captain Ogle, on Board the Swallow Man of War, on the Coast of Guinea (London, 1723), with the report of Captain Chaloner Ogle printed in it.
  36. Atkins says he was six weeks attending the trials of the pirates at Cape Coast Castle and was treated very civilly. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period printed description: John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West-Indies, in His Majesty's Ships the Swallow and Weymouth (London, 1735), the section headed Cabo Corso.
  37. The court of admiralty at Cape Coast Castle resolved that the condemned men who petitioned it should have leave to interchange indentures with the Captain General of the Gold Coast, for the Royal African Company, for seven years' servitude at any of the Company's settlements in Africa. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative reprinting court documents: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), the Cape Corso Castle trial appendix, the petition of 20 April 1722 and the resolution upon it.
  38. Johnson's tally of the whole at Cape Coast Castle gives twenty men to servitude, seventy-four acquitted and fifty-two executed. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. Period narrative reprinting court documents: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), the Cape Corso Castle trial appendix, the account of the whole.