Rowland Backhouse: Merchant Adventurer, East India Investor, and New River Treasurer

Rowland Backhouse

Why he matters

Rowland Backhouse has often been left in the shadow of his brother Samuel. That obscures an important structure. Samuel was Neville's Berkshire neighbor, parliamentary colleague, family associate, and settlement participant. Rowland was a London merchant who entered the East India venture at its formation and became treasurer of the incorporated New River Company. The brothers therefore connected the Backhouse family to the same two major commercial projects that recur in Neville's papers.

This is a family-and-company network, not yet proof of direct correspondence between Rowland and Henry Neville.

Verified Sourced Facts and Source Control

• Rowland was a son of London alderman Nicholas Backhouse and therefore a

brother of Samuel Backhouse.

• The September 1599 East India subscription list groups “Rowland Backhouse,

Barth. and Edw. Barnes” for £400.

• By 1605, Rowland was already free of the Merchant Adventurers.
• On 31 July 1605, he claimed freedom in the Spanish Company by patrimony as

son of the late alderman Nicholas Backhouse. He paid £10, the same sum his father had paid.

• A marriage settlement dated 30 October 1606 identifies him as a citizen

and mercer of London and identifies his wife Elizabeth as a daughter of the deceased merchant Bartholomew Barnes.

• The settlement concerned the manor of Widford, Hertfordshire, and also names

Elizabeth's sisters Margaret, wife of Maurice Abbot, and Mary, wife of Bartholomew Holland.

• The 1619 New River charter appointed Rowland Backhouse of London, mercer,

as treasurer until the Tuesday after All Saints in 1620.

• The London aldermen record identifies Rowland as an alderman in 1627 and

again names him as son of Nicholas Backhouse.

• Later civic lists place him among the sheriffs for 1629.

Identity and date control

The birth discrepancy is important. 1558 and a baptism in July 1564 cannot both describe the same birth. The exact parish entry should be inspected before one date is promoted.

The East India subscription

The 1599 list does not assign £400 individually to Rowland. It groups him with Bartholomew and Edward Barnes:

Rowland Backhouse Barth. and Edw. Barnes 400

The family link later made explicit in the 1606 settlement explains why the three men appear as an investment unit. Rowland had married Bartholomew Barnes's daughter Elizabeth; Bartholomew and Edward belonged to her natal family. The subscription was therefore organized through kin as well as trade.

This is a useful model for examining Neville's company activity. Company lists should be read for household and affinity groupings, not only isolated names.

The 1605 merchant-company record

The Spanish Company register is unusually rich. It says Rowland claimed by patrimony, paid the same admission sum as his father, and was already free of another merchant company. The record therefore establishes inheritance of commercial status and participation in multiple regulated trading bodies.

The entry reads:

Rowland Backhouse son of the late alderman Nicholas Backhouse of London,

claimed his freedom by patrimony.

It then notes:

he was also free of the Merchant Adventurers

This confirms that Rowland's mercantile profile was broader than his East India subscription.

The Barnes marriage settlement

The 1606 settlement connects mercantile, marital, and landed capital. It identifies Rowland and Elizabeth directly and settles the manor of Widford. The same document links the Backhouses by marriage to Maurice Abbot and Bartholomew Holland. Maurice Abbot later became a major East India Company figure and lord mayor.

The settlement therefore supplies a concrete network:

Backhouse — Barnes — Abbot — Holland

It should be used to search company accounts and correspondence, especially where investments are entered in grouped form.

New River treasurer

The New River charter's officer list is explicit:

Hugh Middelton, citizen and goldsmith, was appointed the first Governor;

Robert Bateman of London, skinner, Deputy Governor; Rowland Backhouse of

London, mercer, Treasurer

This was not a ceremonial shareholder description. Treasurer was a corporate office. The surviving court books and financial accounts may therefore contain Rowland's receipts, authorizations, audits, signatures, and dealings with Neville-family shares.

The 1619 shareholder constellation included Samuel Backhouse, Samuel's son John, Rowland, Borlase relatives, and Sir Henry Neville III. The record shows a second-generation overlap between the Backhouse and Neville families inside the incorporated company. It does not establish that Rowland managed Henry Neville II's earlier payments of 1612-13.

Civic career

The aldermen record names Rowland as an alderman in 1627 and preserves the same father identification. Civic office came after decades in overseas and infrastructure companies. This sequence may explain why he was selected as New River treasurer: he combined family standing, City freedom, mercantile experience, and landed security through his marriage.

Research program

1. Inspect the All Hallows Honey Lane register to settle the 1558/1564

discrepancy.

2. Retrieve the Mercers' Company and Merchant Adventurers records for his

apprenticeship, freedom, livery, mastership, and overseas trade.

3. Locate New River treasurer's accounts, bonds, and audits from 1619-20 and

compare them with Neville share papers.

4. Trace the 1599 £400 East India subscription through payment ledgers to

divide the Barnes-Backhouse shares if the records allow.

5. Inspect the Court of Wards original behind the 1606 Widford settlement.
6. Retrieve Rowland's will, probate inventory, and burial entry; map bequests

to Samuel's children and other Neville-connected people.

7. Establish the date and terms of any Clerkenwell land acquisition connected

with New River Head from deeds rather than later narrative.

Quoted Source Passages

East India subscription, September 1599

Rowland Backhouse Barth. and Edw. Barnes 400

Spanish Company register, 31 July 1605

Rowland Backhouse son of the late alderman Nicholas Backhouse of London,

claimed his freedom by patrimony.

Marriage settlement, 30 October 1606

Rowland Backhouse Citizen and Mercer of London, and Elizabeth his wife,

daughter of the said Bartholomew Barnes

New River charter officers

Rowland Backhouse of London, mercer, Treasurer

Citations

• Pauline Croft, ed., The Spanish Company, register book for 31 July 1605,

entry 220, British History Online.

• Calendar of State Papers Colonial, East Indies, China and Japan, September

1599 subscription list, no. 255, British History Online.

• Frederick Arthur Crisp, ed., Fragmenta Genealogica, vol. 13, “Backhouse and

Barnes,” marriage settlement of 30 October 1606, Internet Archive scan.

• Daniel Lysons, The Environs of London, vol. 4, New River charter note,

British History Online.

• Alfred P. Beaven, The Aldermen of the City of London, “Some Account of the

Aldermen,” British History Online.

Notes on Access

The company and calendar texts are public diplomatic or editorial records. The 1606 settlement is printed from a Court of Wards instrument and names its signatures and witnesses, but the original has not been inspected. Parish, probate, and New River company manuscripts remain the principal next step.