Josiah Child
Encyclopedia
Sir Josiah Child of Wanstead, 1st Baronet (1630 – 22 June 1699), English
merchant, economist
proponent of mercantilism
and governor of the East India Company
, was born in London
, the second son of Richard Child, a London merchant of old family.
bankers of Osterley Park
, Burke's Armorials 1884 provides evidence to the contrary, giving both families the same armourials: "Gules, a chevron ermine between 3 eagles close argent". (See Villiers, Earls of Jersey, into which family the banking Child family married). The earliest bearer of these Child arms was William Childe, sheriff of Worcestershire in 1585.
Josiah married firstly, Hannah Boate, dau. of Edward Boate, on 26 December 1654 at Portsmouth, Hampshire, by whom he had one surviving child, Elizabeth, 2 others having died young. He married secondly, c. 14 June 1663, Mary Atwood, daughter of William Atwood, by whom he had Rebecca (c.1666-17 Jul 1712) and his heir Josiah Child, 2nd Baronet (c.1668-20 Jan 1704). He married thirdly, c. 8 August 1676, Emma Barnard daughter of Sir Henry Barnard, by whom he had Richard Child (5 Feb 1680-March 1750), who was created Viscount Castlemain in 1718 and Earl Tylney
in 1731. He died on 22 June 1699, and was buried at Wanstead, Essex. His will dated 22 February 1696 was proved on 6 July 1699.
, as victualler to the navy under the Commonwealth
, when about twenty-five; he is also described as "agent to the Navy Treasurer". He amassed a comfortable fortune, and became a considerable stock-holder in the East India Company. He was returned to Parliament
in 1659 for Petersfield
; and in later years sat for Dartmouth
(1673–1678) and for Ludlow
(1685–1687). He was created Baronet
Child of Wanstead in the County of Essex, in 1678. His advocacy, both by speech and by pen, under the pseudonym Philopatris, of the East India Company's claims to political power, as well as to its right of restricting competition to its trade, brought him to the notice of the shareholders, and he was appointed a Director in 1677, rising to Deputy-Governor and finally Governor. In this latter capacity he directed the Company's policy as if it were his own private business. He and Sir John Child, president of Surat and governor of Bombay (no relation according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, arms: "Vert, 2 bars engrailled between 3 leopards' faces or") are sometimes credited with the change from unarmed to armed traffic, but the actual renunciation of the Roe doctrine of unarmed traffic by the Company was resolved upon in January 1686, under Governor Sir Joseph Ash, when Child was temporarily out of office.
, 6th Mughul Emperor, between 1688 and 1690. Aurangzeb, however, did not take any punitive action against the company and restored its trading privileges. "For a massive indemnity and promises of better conduct in the future, he [Aurangzeb] graciously agreed to the restoration of their [East India Trading Company's] trading privileges and the withdrawal of his troops".
example, and advocated a low rate of interest as the causa causans of all the other causes of the riches of the Dutch people. This low rate of interest
he thought should be created and maintained by public authority. Child, whilst adhering to the doctrine of the balance of trade
, observed that a people cannot always sell to foreigners without ever buying from them, and denied that the export of the precious metals was necessarily detrimental. He had the mercantilist
partiality for a numerous population, and became prominent with a new scheme for the relief and employment of the poor; it is noteworthy also that he advocated the reservation by the mother country of the sole right of trade with her colonies.
in Essex in 1673 from the executors of Sir Robert Brooke
and spent much money on laying out the grounds. The diarist John Evelyn
made the following characteristically waspish entry for 16 March 1683
According to Daniel Defoe
Child "added innumerable rows of trees, avenues and vistas to the house, all leading up to the place where the old house stood, as to a centre".
He served as High Sheriff of Essex
in 1689.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
merchant, economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
proponent of mercantilism
Mercantilism
Mercantilism is the economic doctrine in which government control of foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the prosperity and security of the state. In particular, it demands a positive balance of trade. Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy and discourse from...
and governor of the East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, was born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the second son of Richard Child, a London merchant of old family.
Family
Josiah Child was born c.1630 (baptised 1631), the second son of Richard Child a merchant of Fleet Street (buried 1639 at Hackney) and Elizabeth Roycroft of Weston Wick, Shropshire. Although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states positively that he was not related to the Child & CoChild & Co
Child & Co. is a private banking house in the United Kingdom, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. It is based at 1 Fleet Street in the City of London....
bankers of Osterley Park
Osterley Park
Osterley Park is a mansion set in a large park of the same name. It is in the London Borough of Hounslow, part of the western suburbs of London. When the house was built it was surrounded by rural countryside. It was one of a group of large houses close to London which served as country retreats...
, Burke's Armorials 1884 provides evidence to the contrary, giving both families the same armourials: "Gules, a chevron ermine between 3 eagles close argent". (See Villiers, Earls of Jersey, into which family the banking Child family married). The earliest bearer of these Child arms was William Childe, sheriff of Worcestershire in 1585.
Josiah married firstly, Hannah Boate, dau. of Edward Boate, on 26 December 1654 at Portsmouth, Hampshire, by whom he had one surviving child, Elizabeth, 2 others having died young. He married secondly, c. 14 June 1663, Mary Atwood, daughter of William Atwood, by whom he had Rebecca (c.1666-17 Jul 1712) and his heir Josiah Child, 2nd Baronet (c.1668-20 Jan 1704). He married thirdly, c. 8 August 1676, Emma Barnard daughter of Sir Henry Barnard, by whom he had Richard Child (5 Feb 1680-March 1750), who was created Viscount Castlemain in 1718 and Earl Tylney
Earl Tylney
Earl Tylney, of Castlemaine in the County of Kerry, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 11 June 1731 for Richard Child, 1st Viscount Castlemaine. The Child family descended from the merchant, economist and colonial administrator Josiah Child, who on 16 July 1678 was created a...
in 1731. He died on 22 June 1699, and was buried at Wanstead, Essex. His will dated 22 February 1696 was proved on 6 July 1699.
Career with East India Company
After serving his apprenticeship in the family business, to which after much struggle he succeeded, he started on his own account at PortsmouthPortsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, as victualler to the navy under the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
, when about twenty-five; he is also described as "agent to the Navy Treasurer". He amassed a comfortable fortune, and became a considerable stock-holder in the East India Company. He was returned to Parliament
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
in 1659 for Petersfield
Petersfield (UK Parliament constituency)
Petersfield was an English Parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Petersfield in Hampshire. It existed for several hundred years until its abolition for the 1983 general election....
; and in later years sat for Dartmouth
Dartmouth (UK Parliament constituency)
Dartmouth, also at some times called Clifton, Dartmouth and Hardness, was a parliamentary borough in Devon which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in 1298 and to the Commons of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom from 1351 until 1832, and then one member from...
(1673–1678) and for Ludlow
Ludlow (UK Parliament constituency)
Ludlow is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
(1685–1687). He was created Baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
Child of Wanstead in the County of Essex, in 1678. His advocacy, both by speech and by pen, under the pseudonym Philopatris, of the East India Company's claims to political power, as well as to its right of restricting competition to its trade, brought him to the notice of the shareholders, and he was appointed a Director in 1677, rising to Deputy-Governor and finally Governor. In this latter capacity he directed the Company's policy as if it were his own private business. He and Sir John Child, president of Surat and governor of Bombay (no relation according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, arms: "Vert, 2 bars engrailled between 3 leopards' faces or") are sometimes credited with the change from unarmed to armed traffic, but the actual renunciation of the Roe doctrine of unarmed traffic by the Company was resolved upon in January 1686, under Governor Sir Joseph Ash, when Child was temporarily out of office.
Directs EIC War with Mughul Empire
He lost the war with AurangzebAurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
, 6th Mughul Emperor, between 1688 and 1690. Aurangzeb, however, did not take any punitive action against the company and restored its trading privileges. "For a massive indemnity and promises of better conduct in the future, he [Aurangzeb] graciously agreed to the restoration of their [East India Trading Company's] trading privileges and the withdrawal of his troops".
Economic Philosophy
Child made several important contributions to the literature of economics; especially Brief Observations concerning Trade and the Interest of Money (1668), and A New Discourse of Trade (1668 and 1690). He was a moderate in those days of the mercantile system, and has sometimes been regarded as a sort of pioneer in the development of the free-trade doctrines of the 18th century. Though Child considered himself a proponent of the competitive market, he simultaneously argued for a government-controlled interest rate and restricted trade among the colonies which would benefit England. He made various proposals for improving British trade by following DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
example, and advocated a low rate of interest as the causa causans of all the other causes of the riches of the Dutch people. This low rate of interest
Interest rate
An interest rate is the rate at which interest is paid by a borrower for the use of money that they borrow from a lender. For example, a small company borrows capital from a bank to buy new assets for their business, and in return the lender receives interest at a predetermined interest rate for...
he thought should be created and maintained by public authority. Child, whilst adhering to the doctrine of the balance of trade
Balance of trade
The balance of trade is the difference between the monetary value of exports and imports of output in an economy over a certain period. It is the relationship between a nation's imports and exports...
, observed that a people cannot always sell to foreigners without ever buying from them, and denied that the export of the precious metals was necessarily detrimental. He had the mercantilist
Mercantilism
Mercantilism is the economic doctrine in which government control of foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the prosperity and security of the state. In particular, it demands a positive balance of trade. Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy and discourse from...
partiality for a numerous population, and became prominent with a new scheme for the relief and employment of the poor; it is noteworthy also that he advocated the reservation by the mother country of the sole right of trade with her colonies.
Purchase of Wanstead Manor
Child purchased Wanstead HouseWanstead Park
Wanstead Park is the name of a grade II listed municipal park covering an area of about 140 acres , located in Wanstead, in the London Borough of Redbridge, historically within the county of Essex...
in Essex in 1673 from the executors of Sir Robert Brooke
Robert Brooke (died 1669)
Sir Robert Brooke was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1669.Brooke was the second surviving son of Sir Robert Brooke of Cockfield Hall and his wife Elizabeth Colepeper, daughter of Thomas Colepeper of Wigsale, Sussex. He was educated privately under Daniel...
and spent much money on laying out the grounds. The diarist John Evelyn
John Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...
made the following characteristically waspish entry for 16 March 1683
"I went to see Sir Josiah Child's prodigious cost in planting of walnut trees about his seat and making fishponds many miles in circuit in Epping Forest in a barren spot as commonly these over-grown and suddenly monied men for the most part seat themselves. He from an ordinary merchant's apprentice & management of the East India Company's common stock being arrived to an estate ('tis said) of £200,000 and lately married his daughter to the eldest son of the Duke of Beaufort, late Marquis of Worcester, with £30,000 (some versions £50,000) portion at present, & various expectations. This merchant most sordidly avaricious etc."
According to Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
Child "added innumerable rows of trees, avenues and vistas to the house, all leading up to the place where the old house stood, as to a centre".
He served as High Sheriff of Essex
High Sheriff of Essex
The High Sheriff of Essex was an ancient High Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years...
in 1689.
Child Baronets, of Wanstead (1678)
- Sir Josiah Child, 1st Baronet (c.CircaCirca , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
1630–1699) - Sir Josiah Child, 2nd Baronet (c.CircaCirca , usually abbreviated c. or ca. , means "approximately" in the English language, usually referring to a date...
1668–1704) - Sir Richard Child, 3rd Baronet (1680–1750) (created Viscount CastlemaineViscount CastlemaineViscount Castlemaine is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland. The first creation came in 1718. For more information on this creation, see Earl Tylney. The second creation came in 1822. for more information on this creation, see Baron Castlemaine....
in 1718 and Earl TylneyEarl TylneyEarl Tylney, of Castlemaine in the County of Kerry, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 11 June 1731 for Richard Child, 1st Viscount Castlemaine. The Child family descended from the merchant, economist and colonial administrator Josiah Child, who on 16 July 1678 was created a...
in 1731)
External links
- Macaulay, History of England, vol. iv.; R Grant, Sketch of the History of the East India Company (1813)
- D Macpherson, Annals of Commerce (1805)
- B Willson, Ledger and Sword (1903) The article is available here.