Raymond (Raimund, Rayman, Reyman, Ryman), Captain George: ; Captain George Raymond of Chichester, professional owner-captain of various merchant and privateering vessels, naval officer, and Elizabethan freebooting adventurer extraordinaire, features primarily in our particular narrative as one of the principal gentlemen of the company in the 1585 Roanoke Voyage under Sir Richard Grenville. As captain and part owner of the Lion, Raymond’s vessel was among those separated from Grenville and the Tiger when the squadron was scattered early in the voyage off the ‘Bay of Portingal.’ It is thought that the Lion, following separation from the rest of the squadron, fought a French ship off Jamaica, apparently winning the battle but not capturing the vessel. Soon after she was forced onto the Jamaican shore by a storm and by the time she made it back to sea her crew was pressed for food. In response, Raymond somewhat callously marooned twenty soldiers in Jamaica and set off to find Grenville; shortly thereafter, on 17 June, it is recorded that Raymond put thirty-two more men ashore at Croatan, a rather impolite detail left out of some of the more public reports of the voyage. The Lion finally rejoined Grenville’s company on 6 July, and the other vessels evidently showed up as well around the same tiem, though the specific details of when, where and how the fleet was brought back together are hazy. Later in the voyage it seems that the Lion met up with Bernard Drake, commanding the Golden Royal, near Newfoundland, where, operating out of Virginia, the two formed an organized assault on both Spanish shipping and the French fishing fleets, capturing several ships en route from Brazil and the West Indies, securing significant cargoes of gold, ivory, sugar, and wine, as well as a number of French fishing vessels. This minor expedition underscores the theory that the English settlements in Virginia were initially intended to be used as a base of operations for privateering expeditions. Evidently Raymond did quite well in his privateering exploits and both he and Raleigh gathered significant profits from the venture. Raymond’s privateering career continued and flourished after this expedition. In 1586 Raymond sailed aboard the Swiftsure as an adventurer with a partial share in the expedition, in 1587 he served with Sir Francis Drake in Cadiz, and again in 1588 against the Armada. By 1589, Raymond owned the Swiftsure, which was engaged in her in various privateering expeditions against Spanish shipping in the Azores. Meanwhile, he himself was variously at sea in the queen’s ship the Scout, investing heavily in more privateering vessels, and was caught up in legal disputes in England. Finally, in 1591, Raymond set out to chase one final horizon, embarking in the Penelope for the East Indies, and disappearing into the sea just around the African Cape.;
Works Cited: ; The Roanoke Voyages, 1584-1590: Volume I, ed. David Beers Quinn (London: Hakluyt Society, 1955), 11, 121, 158, 165-6, 171-3, 179-80, 234, 238-9.; Andrews, Kenneth R. Elizabethan Privateering: English Privateering During the Spanish War: 1585-1603 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1964): 92-4, 111, 137, 206, 210, 214-15, 247, 249, 250.;