John Jourdain (? - 17 July 1619), was a captain in the service of the English East India Company (EIC), and president of the EIC Council of India
He was the sixth child and fourth son of John Jourdain, a Lyme Regis based merchant and mayor of the town.[1] By 1595 he was trading on his own account in the Azores but on 7 December 1607 he was engaged by the EIC as one of their factora at a salary of £3 per month plus £10 for "outfit".[2]
He sailed for India in the Ascension on 25 March 1608 on the Company's Fourth Voyage of which Alexander Sharpeigh was the commander or general. After touching at the Cape of Good Hope, and visiting Aden, Mocha, and the island of Socotra, the Ascension sailed, towards the end of August 1609, for Surat, and on 3 September was lost on a shoal in the Gulf of Cambay. The crew reached Gandavee in the boats, and marched thence to Surat. A few days later most of them set out for Agra, but Jourdain remained at Surat, pushing the company's trade and conciliating the Indian officials. In January 1610-11 he joined Captain William Hawkins at Agra, and after six months' stay here he returned to Surat. In February 1611-12 he sailed for the Red Sea in the Trade's Increase. From Mocha he went to Sumatra, and on to Tecoa and Bantam, where he was appointed to remain as chief factor, or 'president of the English,' his work being not only to regulate the business of the company, but—which was more troublesome—to adjust the quarrels of his subordinates. The appointment was made at the behest of General Thomas Best, commander of the tenth voyage, with the consent of the other factors at Bantam.[3] The Dutch, too, were insolent and aggressive, and threatened to become more dangerous enemies than the Portuguese, with whom there had always been war.
Jourdain had intended to go home in the end of 1615, but the death of Captain Nicholas Downton delayed his return for a year. He arrival in England in the early summer of 1617, and in November entered into another agreement with the company for five years at a salary of £350 per annum, of which £50 was to be paid in Enland.[4] By the end of 1618 he was at Jakarta, to which the factory had been moved from Bantam, and was busy directing operations against the Dutch, with whom active hostilities had broken out. As 'president of the council of India,' he refused to admit the authority claimed by Sir Thomas Dale as commander-in-chief. Dale's command, he insisted, was limited to the fleet he came out with, unless other ships were placed under his orders by the president and council. The disputed seems to have been amicably settled. Dale was apparently already affected by the sickness which carried him off a few months later. Jordain departed in the Sampson, with the Hound in company, to arrange affairs at Patani.
At Patani Jourdain was surprised by a Dutch squadron of three or four ships. Both the Sampson and Hound were captured after a sharp fight, in which Jourdain was slain on 17 July 1619.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Jourdain, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
