As part of the 17th-century appetite for discovery and learning, attention was turned to the blank spaces on the maps of the world, and the opportunities they offered for increased knowledge, as well as increased riches. The New World colonies caught the attention of Daniel Coxe well before he invested in West New Jersey.
After a few years spent mixing with the virtuosi in London and playing with volatile salts in his laboratory, Daniel Coxe bethought himself to get a wife. He married Rebecca Coldham, the daughter of John Coldham, Esq. of Tooting Graveney, London. I’m not kidding; Tooting Graveney, actually has its own page in Wikipedia. It is considered a suburb of London, on the south side of the Thames, and was probably quite rural in the 1670s. John Coldham was an Alderman of London and warden of the Grocers Company, from which I conclude that he was a successful merchant with political connections, an ideal father-in-law for an ambitious man.
Just read a fascinating article by Walter Russell Mead on “A Lifetime Reading List.” It inspired me to reflect on why we read books and why some of us love history. Mead points out that:
“World history is so complex and multifaceted that a great danger is that young readers will give up on making any kind of sense out of it. Dozens of civilizations, scores of powers, religions and cultures rising and falling everywhere you look, uncountable throngs of significant schools of art, more battles and wars than you can shake a stick at: getting things in chronological order is the best and perhaps the only way to help young people find their footing in the torrent.”
And not only young people.
You can read the full article here.
