English, Philip

Philip English (1651-1736) was one of the foremost fishing and shipping merchants of seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Born on the Isle of Jersey, he immigrated to Salem sometime before 1670 and set himself up as a general merchant. He outfitted fishing voyages and exported local produce to Spain, France, Ireland, Maryland, Virginia, Jersey, and the West Indies. As early as 1680, he was one of the wealthiest merchants in town, and, by 1692, he was said to own a wharf and warehouse, 14 buildings in Salem, and 21 sea-going vessels.

English was one of the first merchants in Massachusetts to specialize in outfitting voyages to the offshore banks. The majority of his vessels, chiefly two-masted ketches, divided their year between the offshore banks and the export trade to Europe and the West Indies.

Although originally a mariner himself, and one of the very few local merchants who actually dwelt on the waterfront amongst the seamen he employed, English had a turbulent relationship with the maritime community. He was a frequent litigant before the courts, mostly suing his customers for debt. When the controversy concerning witchcraft erupted in 1692, English had to flee the colony for a year to escape prosecution himself.

Created - April 25, 2013

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