John Cabot

It’s not clear, when and how John Cabot died. The last time Cabot was mentioned was in 1508-1509 when he set out on expedition led by his son Sebastiano. Nothing is certain after that; he might have died during the journey or perhaps after returning from the journey.

A tower, ‘Cabot Tower’ was raised in the memory of John Cabot in 1897 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Cabot’s voyage.

John Cabot was born in Genoa, Italy somewhere around 1450. His father, Giulio Caboto, was a spice merchant. John Cabot had a brother named Piero.

When Cabot was 11 years of age, he learned sailing and navigation from Italian seamen and merchants. In 1471, Cabot got accepted by a religious confraternity of St John the Evangelist. This was one of city’s prestigious confraternities.

In 1476, he gained full Venetian citizenship and was eligible for maritime trade. This also included the trade to the eastern Mediterranean which was the main source of Venice’s wealth.

One of the documents that dates back to 1483 suggests that he sold a slave in Crete whom he had met in the territories of the Sultan of Egypt, most of which now comprises of Israel, Syria and Lebanon.

Cabot gained more knowledge of origins of oriental (West Asia) merchandise due to the Mediterranean trade. This helped him in dealing better with spices and silks than most Europeans did at that time.

In November 1488, Cabot got into financial trouble and had to leave Venice due to his debts. At that time, he moved to Valencia, Spain, but his creditors tried to arrest him by sending “a letter of recommendation to justice”.

When he was in Spain, he changed his name to “John Cabot Montecalunya” and made some plans for improving the harbour. Unfortunately, these proposals got rejected.

John Cabot is considered to be the first European to land in North America since the Vikings. He claimed the island of Newfoundland for the British.