Jacques Francis

Jacques Francis, also known as Jaques Frauncys, ( – after February 1548) was an African salvage diver who led the expedition to salvage King Henry VIII's guns from the Mary Rose. He was the first African to give evidence in 1548 before a court. He was accused of being a "slave" and an "infidel" in an attempt to discredit his evidence, but he was paid wages so he was not a slave and furthermore, "slaves were not allowed to give evidence in court".

Origins 1563 Portuguese portolan chart: southeast of Fernando Pó; along the West African coast the Cape Verde islands and farther north Arguin Island; at the top the British Isles with Southampton in the southwest. Jacques Francis was born around 1527 or 1528. He stated during the trial at which he testified that he was 20 years old in 1548. His family origins are unknown. He claimed to be from the "Island of Guinea." This term could refer to most islands off the coast of West Africa, from the Cape Verde islands to Fernando Pó. However, it most likely refers to the island of Arguin, where the Portuguese had established one of their first trading posts (feitoria), an area referred to as "Guinea" by the English. The waters around Arguin, notoriously dangerous for navigation, were the site of frequent shipwrecks. He may also have been a pearl diver. What is certain is that such skills are acquired only after years of training to master breath-holding and depth.

Jacques Francis's swimming and diving skills were all the more important and essential because of the highly ambivalent attitude towards swimming in Britain at the time. The English, like other humans, struggled to resist the temptation to bathe, but the question of learning to swim remained a subject of debate. On one hand, learning to swim could prevent drowning; on the other, it was thought to increase the risk of drowning according to the adage that a person who knows how to swim is more tempted to take risks. In 1571, the vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, John Whitgift, even issued a regulation prohibiting members of the university (both students and teachers) from bathing, swimming, or entering any body of water, under penalty of flogging for a first offense and expulsion for a repeat offense.

During the 1548 trial, Jacques Francis stated that he entered the service of Piero Paolo Corsi two years earlier, around 1546. It is likely that when Corsi obtained the contract to salvage the Mary Rose that year, he sought to recruit a qualified diver—Jacques Francis, in this case. His journey between leaving Arguin and arriving in Britain and Southampton is difficult to trace. Various hypotheses can be put forward. His employer, Piero Paolo Corsi, may have directly recruited him in Africa or used a Portuguese intermediary. He might also have recruited him in Venice itself or elsewhere in the Italian peninsula, where the population of African origin was significant. Most Africans working in Italy had been imported by Portuguese merchants active since the 1440s, often with Italian financing. However, not all were slaves, especially those with significant qualifications. Gustav Ungerer, in his 2005 article, suggests instead that Corsi may have purchased Francis from an Italian merchant in Southampton itself.

In July 1545, during the Battle of the Solent, the Mary Rose, the flagship of Admiral George Carew, took on water through its open gunports and sank in about ten meters of water, for reasons not entirely determined (combat or a mishap). While the ship itself was of great value, that of its cannons was enormous, to the point that recovering them could justify the expenses incurred.

In August 1545, a first recovery attempt, involving around thirty Venetians and sixty English sailors, led by Piero de Andreasi and Simone de Marini, had failed. In total, according to Miranda Kaufmann, Corsi would have received around a hundred pounds from the Admiralty, via royal treasurer Wymond Carew, between 1547 and 1549.

The Sancta Maria et Sanctus Edwardus 1730 chart of the Solent region: center Isle of Wight with The Needles at its western tip; across the channel northeast Portsmouth, north up the Southampton Water estuary Southampton; far east Arundel. The Mary Rose was not the only sunken ship on which Corsi and his divers worked. According to Gustav Ungerer on July 4, 1546, or to Miranda Kaufmann on November 11, 1546, At the end of October 1547, the Italian merchants terminated the contract with Corsi's diving team due to a complete lack of results.

Nevertheless, Corsi was not imprisoned. It was even Angelo de Milanese who secured his immediate release. It appears that the merchant community could scarcely do without Corsi's and his divers' services. Soon after, Corsi even obtained letters from the Lord High Admiral Thomas Seymour demanding that he not be troubled, as his work on the Mary Rose was essential to the state.

It appears that Corsi himself worked in the water: witnesses at the trial reported seeing him swim and even dive, using instruments to descend. It is difficult to determine whether his Venetian origins played a role and if he knew techniques for pressure equalization, enabling him to dive as deep as Jacques Francis and his employees. It is impossible to know what type of equipment they used to descend and retrieve objects.

Testimony before the High Court of Admiralty Despite having recovered his tin, Domenico Erizzo still wanted Piero Paolo Corsi punished. He therefore brought the matter before the High Court of Admiralty in December 1547. This raised two questions: the color of his skin and his legal status. His travel expenses from Southampton, his accommodation costs in London, and his clothing were covered by Corsi, as Francis was, in any case, too poor. Moreover, the "English-style" attire appears to have been a requirement of decorum for appearing before the court of justice. However, an interpreter, John Tyrart, a wine merchant from Blackfriars, had to be used. He translated from either Portuguese or the "fala da Guiné," a Portuguese-derived language used in the region of Africa from which Francis originated for communication between local populations and Portuguese merchants.

In his testimony, Jacques Francis explained that Corsi was innocent. He stated that, with the other divers, he had discovered 200 tin ingots, a bell, and some lead at the bottom of the sea near the western tip of the Isle of Wight, close to the rocks called The Needles off western Isle of Wight. Given that this was the site of many shipwrecks, the discovery was plausible.

In his testimony, Antonio de Nicolao claimed that Corsi had once tried, unsuccessfully, to sell Jacques Francis. Subsequent legal rulings inform us that "the air of England is so pure that it cannot suffer slavery," to quote a later legal judgment concerning a Russian slave in 1569. In the 1470s, in Southampton itself, a Venetian merchant had tried to sell one of his "slaves" to a Genoese colleague. She had taken the matter to court, proof that she knew the legislation.

The very fact that Jacques Francis was permitted to testify confirms his legal status as a free man: villeins (English serfs with very few rights) did not even have that right. In his testimony, Francis describes himself as Corsi's "famulus." For Miranda Kaufmann, he would thus have considered himself a "familiar," a "member of the entourage," and not at all a "servus," a "slave." He would therefore have been well aware that he was a free man. However, this does not preclude the possibility that he may have been a slave upon arriving in England; or even that Corsi, like other Italian merchants who believed their own legislation applied elsewhere, genuinely tried, without success, to sell Francis on the Southampton docks. It may have even been on that occasion that Jacques Francis could have understood that the air of Britain had made him free. Gustav Ungerer, for his part, translates "famulus" not as a "captive slave," but as a "domestic slave," working alongside free servants. It could also be a matter of translation from the "fala da Guine" into a Latin term incorporated into English.

In March 1549, one of Domenico Erizzo's lawyers filed a motion with the court requesting that the testimonies of four other employees of Corsi not be heard: those of John Wescott from Devon, William Mussen from Warwickshire, and the two other African divers John Ito and George Blacke. A long list of arguments was invoked: they were, among other things, "vagabonds," "poor, corrupt," "faithless," "infidels," or "pagans." Yet, Jacques Francis is not mentioned in the motion, perhaps further proof that he was neither pagan nor a slave.

Jacques Francis's testimony before the High Court of Admiralty set a number of legal and social precedents. First, it represented a legal recognition of the presence of Black Africans in England. Second, skin color or ethnic origin would no longer make a difference in the application of common law. Finally, Jacques Francis was, perhaps for the first time, the very example that an African was not an inferior "uncivilized savage," but an individual with qualifications essential to the country, capable of speaking intelligently and with composure.

Later years Only conjectures can be made about the subsequent life of Jacques Francis.

According to Miranda Kaufmann, the verdict of the trial before the High Court of Admiralty is not known. Nevertheless, Piero Paolo Corsi made another mistake. In September 1549, he abandoned operations on the Mary Rose to enter the service of Henry FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel, and recover objects from the sea near Arundel Castle. This "dereliction of duty" was also considered a betrayal by the Admiralty, and Corsi spent six months in the Tower of London.