# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pring, Martin

​PRING, MARTIN (1580–1626?), sea captain, son of John Pring of Awliscombe, Devonshire, was, in 1603, captain of the Speedwell, a vessel of fifty tons burden, which, together with a small barque named the Discoverer, was fitted out by some Bristol merchants, and in great part by John Whiston, the mayor, for a voyage to North Virginia, under license from Sir Walter Ralegh. They sailed from Milford Haven on 10 April, and, passing by the Azores, came among a great number of small islands—apparently in Casco Bay—and through them to the mainland in lat. 43° 30′ N. Then, turning to the southward along the coast, treating with the Indians, they came into ‘that great gulf’ which Bartholomew Gosnold [q. v.] had ‘over-shot’ the year before, and named it Whiston Bay. It is now known as Cape Cod Bay. Here they filled up with sassafras, and, carrying away also a bark canoe—the first, it would seem, taken to England—they arrived at Bristol on 2 Oct., where they reported the land they had visited to be ‘full of God's good blessings,’ and the sea ‘replenished with great abundance of excellent fish’ (Purchas, iv. 1654–6). In March 1604 Pring sailed from Woolwich as master of the Olive Plant, otherwise called the Phœnix, with Captain Charles Leigh [q. v.], on a voyage to Guiana, and arrived on 22 May in the Wyapoco (now Oyapok), where Leigh proposed to form a settlement. His men, however, revolted against the hard fare and the labour of felling the trees, and, led on by Pring, insisted on returning home. Eventually they agreed to stay, but Pring was sent on board a Dutch ship in the river, which carried him to England (ib. iv. 1253, 1260). In October 1606 he went out to Virginia in an expedition fitted out by Sir John Popham [q. v.], and ‘brought back with him,’ wrote Sir Ferdinando Gorges, ‘the most exact discovery of that coast that ever came to my hands since, and indeed he was the best able to perform it of any I met withal, to this present’ (The Advancement of Plantations, &c., p. 6).
It appears probable that in 1608 Pring entered the service of the East India Company. In January 1613–4 he was master of the company's ship New Year's Gift, and on the 17th ​was reprimanded for sleeping out of the ship, then preparing for a voyage. She returned to England in June 1616. In the following February he was appointed captain of the James Royal and general of the voyage. He arrived at Bantam on 22 Oct. 1618, and was shortly afterwards joined there by Sir Thomas Dale [q. v.] When Dale left, the James Royal remained behind, and did not join him till after the battle in Jacatra Bay. As the need for her had then passed, she was sent back to Bantam, where, in March 1619, Pring discovered an intention among the crew to mutiny. Five seamen he flogged; but in writing to the court of directors he complained vehemently of the policy of sending out such men as ‘this incorrigible scum of rascals—sea-gulls, sea-apes—whom the land hath ejected for their wicked lives and ungodly behaviour’ (Cal. State Papers, East Indies, 23 March 1619). On the death of Dale in the summer of 1619, Pring remained general of the company's ships; but the war with the Dutch was not prosecuted. The idea which seems to have directed Pring's conduct was that, in true policy, the English and Dutch should unite, should overthrow the King of Spain, and thus have a monopoly of the trade; buy all commodities in India, and sell them in Europe, at such price as they pleased, whereby they might ‘expect both wealth and honour, the two main pillars of earthly happiness.’ In March 1620 he received news of the peace which had been arranged at home, and immediately fraternised with the Dutch (ib. 21 Dec. 1620). Pring remained in eastern seas during the year, and returned to England in 1621, arriving in the Downs on 18 Sept.
On the passage home, the officers and men of the James Royal made a subscription towards the building of a free school in Virginia. The sum raised amounted to 70l. 8s. 6d., of which Pring contributed 6l. 13s. 4d. (ten marks); this was paid over to the Virginia Company at a court on 21 Nov. 1621. On 3 July 1622 Pring was made a freeman of the company, and was granted two shares of land in Virginia, ‘in regard of the contribution whereof he was an especial furtherer.’ Meantime the court of the East India Company, whose servant he was, was taking a less favourable view of his conduct in India. He was charged with having carried on private trade, contrary to his bond and covenant; in the business of the company ‘he had not carried himself like a man that understood his command;’ he was a good navigator, but a bad officer. When the news of the peace arrived, ‘he had so far undervalued the honour of his commission and of the English nation’ as to go three times on board the Dutch general's ship, whereas the Dutchman had never once come on board his; and, worst of all, ‘he had embraced the accord with the Dutch without first insisting upon such restitution as was warranted by the articles’ (ib. 24–6 Oct. 1621). It was for a time in contemplation to prosecute him for breach of his agreement and other alleged misconduct; the matter was eventually allowed to drop; but when Pring, with truly admirable impudence, applied for a ‘gratification,’ he was told that ‘forty marks a month for so many years was sufficient, and more than he deserved.’ His pay had, in fact, been fixed at forty marks on his agreeing to give up private trade. He is believed to have made a voyage to Virginia in 1626, and to have died in Bristol shortly after his return. He was buried at St. Stephen's Church, Bristol, where there is a monument to his memory. His daughter Alice married Andrews, son of William Burrell, a commissioner of the navy.
J. K. L.