Reference Number: L0433/3
Date: 22-25 July 1700
Extent: 1 item
Provenance: From a collection of newspapers and press cuttings in a large volume titled ‘Old Newspapers Relating to Lloyd’s’. The volume was made in c.1912 by Mr Gillman of the British Museum.

Description: This advert is for the sale by candle, at Lloyd’s Coffee House in Lombard Street for the ship ‘James and Frances’, sometimes known at ‘James and Francis’. It was English built, 220 tonnes, with 12 guns and its captain was Thomas Edwards. The Slave Voyages database, voyage 20234, records the ‘James and Francis’ going from London to Africa and then to Jamaica in 1701. It’s captain was Thomas Edwards and owner was Sir Bartholomew Gracedieu and 162 enslaved Africans were trafficked, of which 130 survived. Sale ‘by the Candle’ or ‘by Inch of the Candle’ was a form of auction in coffee houses, from the later seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century, as advertised in the newspapers of the time. Such auctions became a common event at Edward Lloyd’s Coffee House, and continued after the move to the Royal Exchange in 1774. Bidding started when the candle was lit and stopped after it had burnt an inch.

Notes: For mor information on Candle Auctions see the Underwriting Souls exhibit “The Origins of Lloyd’s”