John Masterton (fl 1667)
Merchant and Shipowner in Edinburgh
John Masterton is mentioned in the Registers of the Privy Council of Scotland as one of the owners of The Elizabeth of Leith skippered by Andrew Spainzie.
Genealogy
No confident links established yet.
Register of the Privy Council of Scotland
Third Series Volume II, 1665-69
1667
Supplication by John Scott, master of the ship The Good Intent, for warrant to transport to Barbados prisoners who are willing to be transported.
Supplication by John Scot, master of the ship called The Good Intent; .........., master of the ship called The Ewe and Lamb; James Currie, Patrick Fyf and James Hamiltoun, merchants, for themselves and in name of the remanent owners of the said ships, as follows:-“It hath been in use to take occasion of ships bounding for Virginia,Barbadoes and other remote islands to disburden the kingdome of strong and idle beggars, vagabonds, Egyptians, comone and notorious whores, theeves and other dissolute and louse persons banished or stigmatized for grosse crymes, and for that effect to grant order and command to shirreiffs, justices of peace and magistrats of burghs to apprehend ther persons and to deliver tham for transportation; and, seeing the countrey doeth now abound with such idle and wicked persons who have no visible way of liveing bot by stouth and robberie, and that ther are severall persons in prison in and about Edinburgh for those and such lyke crymes who, of their owne consent, are content to be caryed to the said plantations; and quheras the petitioners hath ther ships in readiness for receaving and transporting of the saids persons,” they crave warrant for delivery of the same to them. The Lords give order to sheriffs and others as above to deliver such persons of the kind as they can find, and to the magistrates of Edinburgh, Leith and Cannongate to deliver such as are prisoners in their tollbooths for the said crimes who are willing to be thus transported; “provydit the Lord Advocatt and Justice Clerk be aquanted with ther names and consent therto.”
Supplication by Captain Andrew Spainzie, master of the good ship called The Elizabeth of Leith, and Johne Maistertoun, merchant, one of his owners, for himself and in name of the rest of the owners of the said vessel, in the same terms as the preceding. A similar order is given accordingly.
The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland
Third Series, Volume II
P Hume Brown (ed)
1665-69
p. 358
HM General Register House
Edinburgh, 1909