CHILD, Josiah (1631-99), of Portsmouth, Hants.

Josiah Child occasioned much contemporary comment, being viewed as one of the great parvenus of the seventeenth century, who, as the younger son of a modest tradesman, rose to become one of the country’s richest mercantile grandees. Samuel Pepys regarded him as ‘a mighty understanding man’, while another diarist, John Evelyn, considered him ‘overgrown and suddenly monied’, and ‘most sordidly avaricious’.20Pepys Diary, vi. 255; Evelyn, Diary, iv. 305-6. Gilbert Burnet said that Child had ‘great notions as to merchandise ... in which he succeeded beyond any man of his time’, and that as a result he ‘drew much envy and jealousy’. He was considered ‘vain and covetous, and thought too cunning’, but Burnet added that ‘he seemed always sincere’.21Burnet’s History of His Own Time (Oxford, 6 vols. 1833), iv. 414.

Child’s antecedents are certainly obscure, but perhaps not quite as humble as commentators suggested. By the time of Josiah’s baptism in February 1631 his father, was a citizen and Weaver, residing in the City parish of St Bartholomew by the Exchange.22GL, MS 4374/1, unfol. His mother was probably an aunt of Josiah Rycraft or Rycroft, the Stepney merchant who emerged in the 1640s as a prominent Presbyterian controversialist, and thus sister of James Rycroft, who described himself around 1638 as a pilot and naval factor.23‘Josiah Ricraft’, Oxford DNB. Despite receiving land in Essex under the terms of Richard Child’s will, according to Evelyn, Josiah Child began his career as ‘an ordinary merchant’s apprentice’.24Evelyn, Diary, iv. 305-6. At the age of 19 and probably still fulfilling his indentures, at the beginning of May 1650 he arrived in Plymouth to supply the navy with victuals in the company of the captain of a London-based frigate, Anthony Tutchen, plausibly the mariner of Limehouse who in the 1640s and 1650s appears (as Tutchen or Tuchine) both in the St Dunstan, Stepney, parish register and in the registers of an Independent congregation at Bull Lane.25CSP Dom. 1650, p. 172.

Local family contacts and business associates perhaps assisted Child to follow in the footsteps of his elder brother John Child* and marry, in December 1654, into the civic elite of Portsmouth, a major navy base on the south coast. Josiah’s bride was one of the daughters of the late Edward Boate*, a prominent shipbuilder who had also been engaged in navy victualling.26Portsmouth RO, CHU 2/1A/1, unfol. Around that time Child was made a freeman of the town.27Portsmouth RO, CE 1/7, p. 58. By February 1655 he was serving – in similar fashion to Boate – as deputy treasurer or ‘agent’ of the navy at Portsmouth, deploying large sums of money on behalf of the navy commissioners.28CSP Dom. 1655, pp. 424, 431, 489, 564-5. It was a position of influence which over the next few years necessitated frequent communication with his superiors in Westminster about provisions, personnel and finance.29CSP Dom. 1655-6, pp. 522, 540, 562; 1656-7, pp. 456, 458-9, 509, 516; 1657-8, p. 544; 1658-9, pp. 326, 461, 466, 563, 567, 572, 575; 1659-60, pp. 380, 453, 479, 483, 495-6, 501, 540-1, 548-9. Meanwhile, in August 1656 he was made an alderman and in 1658, at the second attempt, became mayor, after serving as one of the town’s justices.30Portsmouth RO, CE 1/7, pp. 58, 66, 82, 99, 101, 121; Portsmouth Sessions Pprs. ed. Hoad, 13, 14, 18, 176.

During his time as mayor Child sought election to the Parliament of Richard Cromwell. At Portsmouth he may have used his influence to secure the election of his elder brother John. He himself was returned at Petersfield alongside Sir Henry Norton*. Claims by the freeholders that the mayor had surreptitiously held the election without due warning were reported to the Commons on 19 February 1659.31CJ vii. 605b. The matter was recommitted, apparently as a result of delaying tactics by the republicans in the House. No decision was made until 22 March, when it was resolved that the freeholders, as well as the burgesses, had a right to participate in the election, and that since the former had not been given due and timely notice, the election was void, and both Child and Norton were disabled from sitting.32CJ vii. 617a. It is unclear whether either man had taken his seat; neither made any impression on the records of the assembly. Later in the year Child is still glimpsed in Portsmouth civic affairs, but notwithstanding the stance taken by his brother John in support of the army and against General George Monck*, there is no indication of how Josiah reacted to the strategically-important seizure of the garrison in December by republicans led by Sir Arthur Hesilrige*.33CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 368.

After the Restoration Child emerged as one of the country’s wealthiest merchants, but he was removed from his position of influence in Portsmouth as a result of the Corporation Act, and soon severed his ties with the town.34Letwin, Sir Josiah Child; Portsmouth RO, PE 7, unfol. Returning to London on his second marriage, in the mid-1660s he settled in Wanstead in Essex, where he developed his business ventures.35VCH Essex, vi. 324. By August 1665 he was supplying Charles II’s navy with timber and masts.36CSP Dom. 1664-5, pp. 540, 564, 568. By 1668 he had joined the Board of Trade, where he commended the example of the Dutch, and advocated the prioritisation of commerce by English governments and a greater role for merchants in public life, as well as reform of the inheritance laws, the implementation of effective poor laws, and the expansion of education. Notably, he was convinced that prosperity was encouraged by religious liberty.37HMC 8th Rep. pt. 1 (1881), 133-4; J. Child, Brief Observations Concerning Trade and Interest of Money (1668), 3-4. A founding member of the Royal Africa Company, he joined the East India Company in 1674, quickly became its largest stockholder, and twice served as governor in the 1680s.38Add. 38871, ff. 6v-12.

Child was elected to two further Parliaments, but although evidently never far from the centre of national affairs, he played little overt part in political events. In 1677 he was considered ‘worthy’ by Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper*), but the following year, when he was awarded a baronetcy, was listed as a court supporter. He was observed as a regular attender of coffee-house discussions, but may have eschewed direct political activity as potentially detrimental to business.39HMC 9th Rep. pt. 2, 456; HP Commons 1660-1690. His vast wealth was reflected in his children’s marriages: the daughter who married Charles Somerset, son of the duke of Beaufort, apparently received a portion of £30,000, and later married John, Baron Granville with £25,000; his eldest son’s wife brought £20,000.40Evelyn, Diary, iv. 305-6; PROB11/451/289. At his death in June 1699, when he was buried at Wanstead with an elaborate monument, Child’s estate was reputedly worth £200,000.41VCH Essex, vi. 334; RCHM Essex, ii. 249; HMC Lords, n.s. iv. 130; Evelyn, Diary, iv. 305-6. Two of Child’s sons, Sir Josiah Child†, and Sir Richard Child†, sat in Parliament in the early eighteenth century, the latter being elevated to the peerage as Viscount Castlemaine in 1718 and created Earl Tylney of Castlemaine in 1731.42HP Commons 1690-1715; HP Commons 1715-1754.