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 pp. 98, 138, 366). The expedition was a failure. The squadron missed the Brazil fleet it hoped to take, and Warwick, who was accidentally separated from the other ships, narrowly escaped capture (''Hist. MSS. Comm''. 3rd Rep. p. 285; Court and Times of Charles I, i. 226, 260, 266, 276). In August he returned from his voyage with more credit than profit. ‘He was never sick one hour at sea,’ writes an admiring newsletter, ‘and would as nimbly climb up to top and yard as any common mariner in the ship; and all the time of the fight was as active and as open to danger as any man there’ (ib. i. 261). In 1628 and 1629 he sent out more privateers, and took prizes, which involved him in legal disputes that were unsettled twelve years later (''Hist. MSS. Comm''. 4th Rep. pp. 15, 45, 99).

During the early part of the reign of Charles I Warwick gradually became estranged from the court, and allied himself with the puritan opposition. He belonged to a puritan family, was an intimate friend of Sir John Eliot, and ‘loved the Duke of Buckingham little’ (, Life of Eliot, ii. 64, 72, 642). In November 1626 he refused to subscribe to the forced loan (, History of England, vi. 150). In the struggle for the petition of right Warwick was one of the band of peers who supported the lower house; and on 21 April 1628 he made a spirited speech against the king's claim to imprison without showing cause (Old Parliamentary History, viii. 69). He showed equal interest in the religious questions at issue, and it was by his procurement that the disputation between Dr. White and Dr. John Preston [q. v.] on Arminianism was arranged (February 1626;, Church History, ed. 1655, x. 124).

Warwick's colonial ventures brought him into constant association with the leading men of the puritan party, and connected his name indissolubly with the early history of the New England colonies. As a member of the council of the New England Company he was one of the signatories of the patent to John Peirce (1 June 1621) under which the new Plymouth colony existed for the first eight years of the settlement; and as president of the company he signed the second patent to William Bradford (13 Jan. 1630). The patent for the Massachusetts colony to John Endecott and his associates (19 March 1628) was procured by them through the influence of Warwick (, History of America, iii. 275, 279, 342). With the origin of Connecticut he was equally closely connected. On 19 March 1632 Warwick granted to Lord Say, Lord Brooke, John Hampden, and others what is known as ‘the old patent of Connecticut,’ under which the town of Saybrook was established, and John Winthrop the younger became in 1635 governor of the infant state. The question whether the grant was made by Warwick as president of the council, or as the owner of a prior patent for the territory granted to him by the company, is disputed (ib. pp. 369, 376;, History of New England, i. 399; , The English in America, ‘Puritan Colonies,’ i. 205). In June 1632 a division took place in the New England council, probably connected with the Massachusetts and Connecticut patents, which ended in a demand that the company's great seal, which was in Warwick's keeping, should be returned by him to the council, and in the election of Sir Ferdinando Gorges [q. v.] as president in his stead, iii. 370;, i. 400). The company surrendered its charter to the king on 7 June 1635, and during the last three years of its existence Warwick ceased to attend its meetings, and turned his attention exclusively to the management of the Bermudas and Providence companies. One of the eight ‘tribes’ into which the Bermudas were divided bore the name of Warwick. In the map of 1626 he appears as the owner of fourteen shares; and he was for many years governor of the company. The patent founding the company of adventurers for the island of Providence (Old Providence or Catalina, off the Mosquito coast) was granted on 4 Dec. 1630, the patentees including Warwick, Lord Say, Lord Brooke, Oliver St. John, and other noted puritans. Pym was treasurer of the company, and Warwick's house in St. Bartholomew's or Brooke's house in Holborn was the usual place of meeting. Warwick was one of the most zealous members of the company. By 1639 he had incurred a debt of 2,430l. in the venture, but offered 2,000l. a year for the next five years on certain conditions. He even declared, in 1636, his resolution of going thither himself as governor, though probably the political situation in England led him to change his purpose (Cal. State Papers, Col. 1574–1660, pp. 123, 222, 290).

Meanwhile, in domestic politics, Warwick rapidly became more prominent in opposition to the policy of Charles I. The revival of the forest laws touched him closely, and at the forest court held for Waltham forest, in October 1634, he opposed Sir John Finch, the attorney-general, on behalf of the gentlemen of Essex (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1634–5, p. xxxiii). The opposition to the payment of ship-money in that county was attributed to his influence; and when called to account by the king he was credited with