So many people think America is named after the Italian map maker and merchant Amerigo Vespucci. It is not so. America was named after a Welshman who was a wealthy merchant in Bristol. His name was Richard Ameryk.
Mr Ameryk was the principal investor in the second transatlantic voyage of John Cabot. That is the anglicised form of the name of the Italian Navigator Giovanni Cabot. His voyages in 1497 and 1498 was the basis for the British claim on Canada. He shifted from Genoa to London in 1484 and was authorised y King Henry VII to scout for undiscovered lands in the West.
Carried on his little ship Matthew Cabot reached Labrador in May 1497 and became the first recorded European to set foot in America. He beat Vespucci by two years.
As the chief bankroll to the expedition Richard Ameryk would have expected the finds to be named after him and there is record in the Bristol calendar for that year on St John the Baptist's Day, June 24, 'the land of America was found by the merchants of 'Bristowe' in a ship of Bristowe called Mathew'.
What could be clearer?
Mr Ameryk was the principal investor in the second transatlantic voyage of John Cabot. That is the anglicised form of the name of the Italian Navigator Giovanni Cabot. His voyages in 1497 and 1498 was the basis for the British claim on Canada. He shifted from Genoa to London in 1484 and was authorised y King Henry VII to scout for undiscovered lands in the West.
Carried on his little ship Matthew Cabot reached Labrador in May 1497 and became the first recorded European to set foot in America. He beat Vespucci by two years.
As the chief bankroll to the expedition Richard Ameryk would have expected the finds to be named after him and there is record in the Bristol calendar for that year on St John the Baptist's Day, June 24, 'the land of America was found by the merchants of 'Bristowe' in a ship of Bristowe called Mathew'.
What could be clearer?
