Matthew Cradock

Matthew Cradock was a London merchant, politician, and the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company.

He started his career in 1606 as an apprentice to William Cockayne at the Skinners' Company, then a major London shipping firm. His commercial dealings initially involved northwestern Europe, and with time extended to the Near East. In 1627 he joined the Levant Company, and the next year he bought £2,000 of stock in the East India Company serving as its director in 1629-1630 and from 1634-1641. In 1640 he joined a group of businessmen, who opposed the conservative royalist leadership of the East India Company and tried to reform the company’s directorate.

Cradock’s trading empire encompassed at least 18 ships and extended from the West Indies and North America to Europe and the Near East. He became a dominant force in the lucrative tobacco trade. Cradock was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony founded in 1629 in New England. He owned property and business there, and acted on its behalf in London, although he never actually visited the colony.

He was active in the Parliament, and he participated in the work of the Short Parliament and the Long Parliament.

Cradock was twice married and had only one surviving daughter.