Gabriel Towerson

Born in London into a family of William Towerson, a prominent member of the Muscovy, Eastland and Spanish companies, Gabriel began his career as a naval officer and agent in the service of the East India Company.

He joined the company’s second voyage to the East and is remembered as one of the first resident factors at Bantam, where he stayed together with John Saris until his return to England in 1609 aboard the famous Red Dragon. In 1611 the sailed again to Bantam as a captain of the Hector and returned to England two years later.

According to sources by 1617 Towerson was back to India and was particularly active in the Red Sea ports. Sir Thomas Roe, the English ambassador at that time wrote that Gabriel arrived with “many servants, a trumpet, and more show” than he himself used. While there, he married an Armenian wife at Agra, but he left her there and returned to England alone in 1618.

In 1620 Towerson he was appointed a principal factor at the Moluccas Islands and was ordered to proceed to the East. There he was murdered on the 27th February 1623 in the wholesale massacre of the English by the Dutch at Amboyna. This tragic incident was the result of the intense rivalry between the English and Dutch East India Companies over the extremely lucrative spice trade. It remained a source of tension between the two nations until late in the 17th century.