Samrick21 at 13:04, 23 July 2025

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{{Short description|British explorer and adventurer (c. 1560–1614)}}
{{EngvarB|date=January 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
'''John Mildenhall''' ({{circa|1560}}–1614) or '''John Midnall''' was an English explorer and adventurer and one of the first to make an overland journey to India. He was the self-styled ambassador of the [[British East India Company]] in [[India]]. His is the first recorded burial of an Englishman in India.

== Personal life ==

Little is known of John Mildenhall's early life. The date and location of his birth are unknown. In a letter written on 12 February 1599 he describes himself as ''John Mildenhall of London, Merchant''. In the same letter, he likens the abundance of fish found at Lake Van (Turkey) to ''..our herring time at Yermouth'' (Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England), which he then describes.<ref>Purchas, Samuel, Purchas his Pilgrimes, London: Henry Fetherstone, 1625. Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership, 2011, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A68617.0001.001/1:14.1.3, accessed 19 January 2021</ref>

In letters written by a contemporary merchant, John Sanderson, Mildenhall (more commonly called Midnall) is often referred to as a ''cuckold'', inferring that he was a married man.<ref>Foster, William. ''The Travels of John Sanderson in The Levant 584-1602''. The Hakluyt Society, Second Series, 1931. Archive.org digital copy, https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.99313/page/n251, (pgs 18,197 & 281) accessed 19 January 2021</ref> Whether there was any issue from this marriage is not known; but Mildenhall did have two illegitimate children, in Persia, with an Indian woman. These two children (a boy and a girl) were left in the care of a Frenchman, named Augustin (the executor of Mildenhall's will), and Mildenhall bequeathed them his effects. The majority of Mildenhall's estate was eventually recovered by the East India Company, and the fate of the two children is unclear.<ref>Foster, William, Early Travels in India 1583-1619, Oxford University Press, 1921, Archive.org digital copy https://archive.org/details/earlytravelsinin00fostuoft/page/52, accessed 19 January 2021.</ref>

== Travels to India ==

Mildenhall was one of the first British travellers to journey overland to India.<ref name="mildenhall_book1_63">{{cite book|last=Prasad|first=Ram Chandra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nUx8ZzIHBsC&pg=PA63|title=Early English Travellers in India|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publications|year=1980|isbn=9788120824652|location=Delhi|pages=63}}</ref> His name first appears in the Court Records of the British East India Company concerning a letter sent by him "to his master Rich Stapers, declaring what privileges he had obtained in the Indies and offering them, and his services to the Company for 1,500 pounds in hand".
On 21{{nbsp}}June 1608 the Court decided to consider his demand, and in October nominated Mildenhall as factor along with Lawrence Femell and Edward Abbott. However, Mildenhall demanded even more and as a consequence, negotiations came to an end.

Entrusted with the sale of the Company goods in the [[Levant]], Mildenhall, travelled through Eastern Europe, passed through Scio and [[Smyrna]], and reached [[Constantinople]] on 29{{nbsp}}October 1599. After a six-month stay in Constantinople, he continued his journey and arrived at Aleppo on 24{{nbsp}}May 1600 where he stayed for forty-two days. On 7{{nbsp}}June 1600 Mildenhall left Aleppo with an entourage of six hundred people and, after travelling through Bir, [[Urfa]], [[Diyarbakır|Diarbekir]], [[Bitlis]], [[Van, Turkey|Van]], [[Nakhchivan (city)|Nakhichevan]], [[Julfa, Azerbaijan (city)|Julfa]], [[Soltaniyeh|Sultanieh]], [[Kazvin]], [[Qom|Kum]], [[Kashan]], [[Kerman]], [[Sistan]] and [[Kandahar]], he reached [[Lahore]] in 1603.

Mildenhall was entrusted with the sale of the company's goods in the [[Levant]] but he deceived the British East India Company by escaping to [[Persia]] instead. A letter from [[Ajmer]] dated 20{{nbsp}}September 1614 informs the British East India Company that an Englishman named Richard Steele had arrived at [[Aleppo]] along with another Englishman, Richard Newman, in pursuit of one John Midnall who had tried to flee with the company's provisions to [[India]] but was overtaken and captured at Tombaz and taken back to [[Isfahan]].

Mildenhall was released soon afterward, but his belongings were confiscated. However, he received compensation of 9,000 dollars in return. Shortly after his release, Mildenhall traveled to India and arrived in Lahore accompanied by Newman, who had had an altercation with Steele and had chosen to follow Mildenhall. They parted ways in Lahore but reunited in [[Agra]].

In 1603,<ref>{{Cite book|last1=MacLean|first1=Gerald|url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203185.001.0001/acprof-9780199203185|title=Britain and the Islamic World, 1558–1713|last2=Matar|first2=Nabil|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2011|isbn=978-0-19-920318-5|pages=71–72|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199203185.001.0001}}</ref> John Mildenhall reached the court of the [[Mughal Emperor]] [[Akbar]] and held discussions with him. However, he was regarded as an outlaw by the British East India Company whose exports to the Levant he had diverted to India. Moreover, his journey was not sponsored by the company. Hence, the British East India Company sent [[Sir William Hawkins]] to India in pursuit of Mildenhall and to declare all his dealings null and void.

== Burial ==
[[File:Mildenhall tomb.jpg|thumb|Mildenhall's tomb]]
John Mildenhall is interred at the Roman Catholic cemetery in Agra. Originally his grave had a Portuguese inscription which read "Joa de Mendenal, Ingles, moreo aos [unintelligible text] Junho 1614" (literally: Englishman, dead in June 1614).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Blunt|first=Edward Arthur Henry|author-link=E. A. H. Blunt|year=1910|title=The Tomb of John Mildenhall.|journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|volume=42|issue=2|pages=495–498|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00039757|jstor=25189697|s2cid=164097635 }}</ref> In the 20th century an English inscription was added, probably by the colonial English government:<ref>{{Cite book|last=Blunt|first=Edward Arthur Henry|url=https://archive.org/details/listofinscriptio00blunuoft/page/40/mode/2up?q=mildenhall|title=List of inscriptions on Christian tombs and tablets of historical interest in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|year=1911|location=Allahabad|pages=41|author-link=E. A. H. Blunt}}</ref>
:Here lies John Mildenhall, Englishman, who left London in 1599 and traveling to India through Persian, reached Agra in 1603 and spoke with the Emperor Akbar. On a second visit in 1614 he fell ill at Lahore, died at Ajmer, and was buried here through the good offices of Thomas Kerridge merchant.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tajhub.com/taj-mahal/agra/beyond_taj2.html |title=Agra — Beyond Taj |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071021154143/http://www.tajhub.com/taj-mahal/agra/beyond_taj2.html |archive-date=21 October 2007 }}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=September 2017}}

== Bibliography ==
*{{Cite journal|last=Blunt|first=E. A. H.|author-link=E. A. H. Blunt|date=1910|title=The Tomb of John Mildenhall|journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|volume=42|issue=2|pages=495–498|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00039757|jstor=25189697|s2cid=164097635 }}
*{{Cite book|last=Foster|first=William|url=https://archive.org/details/earlytravelsini00fostgoog/page/n90/mode/2up|title=Early Travels in India: 1583-1619|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1921|location=London et al.|pages=48–59|author-link=William Foster (historiographer)}}
*{{Cite book|last=Prasad|first=Ram Chandra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nUx8ZzIHBsC&pg=PA63|title=Early English Travellers in India: A Study in the Travel Literature of the Elizabethan and Jacobean Periods with Particular Reference to India|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|year=1980|isbn=978-81-208-2465-2|edition=2|location=Delhi|pages=63–81}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mildenhall, John}}
[[Category:Explorers of Asia]]
[[Category:1560s births]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:1614 deaths]]
[[Category:Expatriates in the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Expatriates in the Mughal Empire]]
[[Category:Expatriates from the Kingdom of England]]
[[Category:16th-century English explorers]]
[[Category:17th-century English explorers]]

John Mildenhall - Revision history

Samrick21 at 13:04, 23 July 2025