Robert Jenkins

Biography

Robert Jenkins (fl. 1730s – c. 1740s) was a Welsh master mariner from Llanelli, famous as the protagonist of the "Jenkins's ear" incident, which became a contributory cause of the War of Jenkins' Ear between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Spain in 1739. Returning home from a trading voyage in the West Indies in command of the smuggling brig Rebecca in April 1731, Jenkins' ship was stopped and boarded by the Spanish guarda-costa or privateer La Isabela on suspicion of smuggling. According to some accounts, her commander, Juan de León Fandiño, had Jenkins bound to a mast, then sliced off his left ear with his sword and allegedly told him to say to his King "the same will happen to him (the king) if caught doing the same". Another account, in The Pennsylvania Gazette for 7 October 1731, attributes the assault to the Spanish lieutenant Dorce, who "took hold of his left Ear, and with his Cutlass slit it down; and then another of the Spaniards took hold of it and tore it off, but gave him the Piece of his Ear again, bidding him carry it to his Majesty King George". On arriving in Britain on 11 June, Jenkins addressed his grievances to the king, and gave a deposition which was passed to the Duke of Newcastle in his capacity as Secretary of State for the Southern Department (as such responsible for the American colonies). In his deposition of 18 June 1731, Jenkins stated that the Spanish captain, "took hold of his left Ear and with his Cutlass slit it down, and then another of the Spaniards took hold of it and tore it off, but gave him the Piece of his Ear again." This report was then forwarded to the Commander-in-chief in the West Indies, who then complained of Jenkins' treatment to the Governor of Havana. At the time the incident received little attention, but it was reported in The Gentleman's Magazine in June 1731: The Rebecca, Capt. Jenkins, was taken in her passage from Jamaica, by a Spanish Guarde Costa, who put her people to the torture; part of w

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