Dalby Thomas

Dalby Thomas (c. 1650–1711) was an English businessman and writer.^[1] Thomas was a commissioner of the glass duty, which administered taxes on bottles, dishes, and other glassware. Daniel Defoe became an accountant for Dalby Thomas in the fall of 1695, through 1699.^[2] Dalby Thomas was knighted 1 August 1703 at Windsor Castle -- "of Essex and London, general, and chief director for the Royal Africa Company"^[3]

Sir Dalby was governor (Agent-general) of Cape Coast Castle, 1703-1711,^[4] the main British slave fort on the West African coast. He died in Africa, but his wife Lady Dorothy Thomas and daughter Susanna used family money to pay for a new vicarage at St Mary’s Church, Hampton and built a lavish tomb to Sir Dalby.^[5]

Slave Trade

He wrote Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the West-India Colonies and of the Great Advantages They Are to England, in Respect to Trade which was published in London in 1690.^[6][7] Here he advocated revoking the monopoly on trading in enslaved Africans, which at the time was enjoyed by the Royal African Company, arguing that free trade would lead to a reduction in the price of chattel slaves.^[8] Thomas called for the establishment of a great council of trade representing "every Plantation, Marritime, City, Company, Constitution and Trade, which would desire to send Members to it", which would draw up advisory documents for both Houses of Parliament.^[9]

References

1. Gauci, Perry (2004). "Thomas, Sir Dalby (c. 1650–1711), merchant and writer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49984. Retrieved 15 June 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. Blackscheider, Paula (1989). Daniel Defoe -- His Life. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 63.
3. Shaw, William (1906). "The Knights of England". Vol. 2. London: Sherratt and Hughes. p. 274. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
4. Henige, David (1980). "'Companies Are Always Ungrateful': James Phipps of Cape Coast, a Victim of the African Trade". African Economic History. 9: 27–47. doi:10.2307/3601386. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
5. Wills, Mary; Dresser, Madge (2020). "The Transatlantic Slave Economy and England's Built Environment: A Research Audit". p. 39. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
6. "1690, West Indian Colonies, History, Dalby". www.llmc.com. Law Library Microform Consortium. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
7. Thomas, Dalby (1690). "Historical Account of the Rise and Growth of the West-India Colonies and of the Great Advantages They Are to England, in Respect to Trade". The Harleian Miscellany (1810). Vol. 9. London: Robert Dutton. pp. 403–444. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
8. Hogg, Peter (2014). The African Slave Trade and Its Suppression: A Classified and Annotated Bibliography of Books, Pamphlets and Periodical. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781317792352.
9. Horrigan, Liam Francis (2016). Settling the Trade to Africa: The Anglo-African Trade, 1695-1715, and the Political and Economic Implications of 1698. Canterbury: University of Kent.

Dalby is mentioned several times in K G Davies Royal African Company along with Jon Snow whom was his contemporary in NW Africa.