Note 121 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

M. D’Avezac believed that Sebastian Cabot was born in 1472 or 1473, and that John Cabot and his family removed to England not far from the year 1477. He infers this last date from a conviction that John Cabot early engaged in maritime voyages from Bristol, and that the mention of a vessel sailing from that port in 1480, belonging to John Jay the younger, conducted by “the most skilful mariner in all England,” pointed to John Cabot as the real commander. And he thought he derived some support for this opinion from some passages in the letter of D’Ayala, the Spanish ambassador, mentioned farther on, in regard to voyages made from Bristol to the west for several years before the date of his letter. See Corry’s History of Bristol, i. 318, a work not accurate in relation to the Cabot voyages; cf. Botoner, alias William Wyrcestre, in Antiquities of Bristol, pp. 152, 153.