John of London (ship)

The John of London was possibly built during the 1620s by Robert Trenckmore in his shipyards at Shoreham-By-Sea in West Sussex, England. At least once during her 20-30 year lifespan, she was refitted as a fighting ship.

The ship was captained by George Lamberton during her 1638 voyage from Hull, Yorkshire to Boston, Massachusetts. This voyage brought Ezekiel Rogers and a number of families that went on to settle Rowley, Massachusetts. The voyage was also notable for bringing the first printing press to North America,^[1][2] which went on to be used at Harvard College.^[3][4]

The John of London was captured and sunk near Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, during 1650.

• Paine, Lincoln P., Ships of the World, An Historical Encyclopedia; Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1997. (p. 619)
• Spectre, Peter H. and Larkin, David, Wooden Ship, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston; 1991.
• Paine, Lincoln P., Ships of the World, An Historical Encyclopedia; Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1997. (Centerpiece)
• Cheal, Henry, The Story of Shoreham, Hove Combridges, 1921. (pp. 148–149)
• Atwater, Edward, History of the Colony of New Haven; 1880. (pp. 84, 85)
• Lauder-Frost, G.M.S., East Lothian Life, Issue 22, Autumn 1996, (ISSN 1361-7818)
• Corydon Ireland, Harvard Gazette, The instrument behind New England’s first literary flowering; Harvard University, Cambridge, 2012.

• John of London Passenger List, Summer of 1638
• The instrument behind New England’s first literary flowering Archived 2016-07-11 at the Wayback Machine
• Rowley and Ezekiel Rogers, The First North American Printing Press Archived 2013-01-23 at the Wayback Machine