Henry Timberlake

Henry Timberlake (1570 – 1625) was an English merchant and member of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London, a trading guild founded in the early 15th century. Born in 1570, Timberlake eventually acquiring enough capital to join the guild sometime before 1601. In addition to his business relationships, Timberlake became known for his travels in North Africa, Egypt, and Jerusalem in 1601, which he recounted and published in 1603. Accounts of his travels proved popular in England and were subsequently reprinted in several editions. Timberlake later travelled to the English colonies in the Americas, where he purchased land in Virginia and Bermuda. He subsequently returned to England, where he died in 1625. Early life and pilgrimage Henry Timberlake was born in England in 1570. Timberlake became a merchant, eventually acquiring enough capital to join the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London, a trading guild, sometime before 1601. He purchased and outfitted merchant ships for conducting trade with merchants in North Africa and Egypt. In 1601, Timberlake sailed into the Mediterranean onboard his merchantmen Trojan (also recorded as Troyan), picking up Muslim travellers in Algiers who were bound for Mecca and Tunis. Timberlake, along with assistant Waldred, transferred his Levant Company goods for an overland trip to the River Nile, then transferred the goods again to sail downriver to Cairo. Finding no luck in his attempts to sell his goods in the city, Timberlake arranged travel for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem accompanied by another Englishman, John Burrell of Middlesbrough.