Family, early life and education Hakluyt's patrilineal ancestors were of
Welsh extraction, rather than
Dutch as is often suggested; they appear to have settled in
Herefordshire in England around the 13th century, and, according to
antiquary John Leland, took their surname from the "Forest of Cluid in Radnorland". Some of Hakluyt's ancestors established themselves at
Yatton in
Herefordshire, and must have ranked amongst the principal landowners of the county. A person named Hugo Hakelute, who may have been an ancestor or relative of Richard Hakluyt, was elected
Member of Parliament for the
borough of Yatton in 1304 or 1305, and between the 14th and 16th centuries five individuals
surnamed "de Hackluit" or "Hackluit" were
sheriffs of Herefordshire. A man named Walter Hakelut was
knighted in the 34th year of
Edward I (1305) and later killed at the
Battle of Bannockburn, and in 1349 Thomas Hakeluyt was
chancellor of the
diocese of Hereford. Records also show that a Thomas Hakeluytt was in the
wardship of
Henry VIII (reigned 1509–1547) and
Edward VI (reigned 1547–1553). , by an unknown artist, from
Rudolph Ackermann's
History of Oxford (1813) Richard Hakluyt, the second of four sons, was born in
Eyton in
Herefordshire in 1553. Hakluyt's father, also named Richard Hakluyt, was a member of the
Worshipful Company of Skinners whose members dealt in skins and furs. He died in 1557 when his son was aged about five years, and his wife Margery While a Queen's Scholar at
Westminster School, Hakluyt visited his guardian, whose conversation, illustrated by "certain bookes of cosmographie, an universall mappe, and the Bible", made Hakluyt resolve to "prosecute that knowledge, and kind of literature". Entering
Christ Church, Oxford, in 1570 with financial support from the Skinners' Company, was one that he wrote himself,
Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America and the Ilands Adjacent unto the Same, Made First of all by our Englishmen and Afterwards by the Frenchmen and Britons (1582). Hakluyt's
Voyages brought him to the notice of
Lord Howard of Effingham, and
Sir Edward Stafford, Lord Howard's brother-in-law. At the age of 30, being acquainted with "the chiefest captaines at sea, the greatest merchants, and the best mariners of our nation", Although this was his only visit to
Continental Europe in his life, he was angered to hear the limitations of the English in terms of travel being discussed in Paris. to which he was admitted in 1585 or 1586 and held with other preferments till his death. Hakluyt's other works during his time in Paris consisted mainly of
translations and compilations, with his own
dedications and
prefaces. These latter writings, together with a few letters, are the only extant material out of which a biography of him can be framed. Hakluyt interested himself in the publication of the
manuscript journal of
René Goulaine de Laudonnière, ''L'histoire notable de la Floride située ès Indes Occidentales
in Paris in 1586. The attention that the book excited in Paris encouraged Hakluyt to prepare an English translation and publish it in London under the title A Notable Historie Containing Foure Voyages Made by Certayne French Captaynes unto Florida'' (1587). The same year, his edition of
Peter Martyr d'Anghiera's
De Orbe Nouo Decades Octo saw the light at Paris. This work contains an exceedingly rare
copperplate map dedicated to Hakluyt and signed F. G. (supposed to be Francis Gualle); it is the first on which the name "
Virginia" appears. On 20 April 1590 Hakluyt was instituted to the
clergy house of
Wetheringsett-cum-Brockford, Suffolk, by Lady Stafford, who was the
Dowager Baroness Sheffield. He held this position until his death, and resided in Wetheringsett through the 1590s and frequently thereafter. In the following year, he was elected
archdeacon of the Abbey. Hakluyt was married twice, once in or about 1594 Hakluyt prepared an English translation of Dutch jurist
Hugo Grotius'
Mare Liberum (1609), a treatise that sought to demonstrate that the Dutch had the right to trade freely in the
East Indies, contrary to Spanish and Portuguese claims of sovereignty over the seas, in the early 17th century. Helen Thornton has suggested that the translation was commissioned by
Thomas Smythe who became treasurer of the Virginia Company in 1609 and was also Governor of the East India Company. In that year, Hakluyt was a consultant to the Company when it was renewing its charter. Grotius' arguments supported England's right to trade in the Indies. The translation may also have been part of the propaganda encouraging English people to settle in Virginia. In
Mare Liberum, Grotius denied that the 1493 donation by
Pope Alexander VI that had divided the oceans between Spain and Portugal entitled Spain to make territorial claims to North America. Instead, he stressed the importance of occupation, which was favourable to the English as they and not the Spanish had occupied Virginia. Grotius also argued that the seas should be freely navigable by all, which was useful since the England to Virginia route crossed seas which the Portuguese claimed. Hakluyt's handwritten manuscript, MS Petyt 529, in
Inner Temple Library in London was eventually published as
The Free Sea for the first time in 2004. by an error in the abbey register his burial is recorded under the year 1626. Others, consisting chiefly of notes gathered from contemporary authors, are preserved at the University of Oxford. Hakluyt is principally remembered for his efforts in promoting and supporting the settlement of North America by the English through his writings. These works were a fertile source of material for
William Shakespeare John Pory made his version of
Leo Africanus's
A Geographical Historie of Africa (1600), and P. Erondelle translated
Marc Lescarbot's
Nova Francia (1609). ==Legacy==