John Keymor, or Keymer, was probably born in the 1550s. In January 1579 he married Joan Jackson at All Saints Cambridge (IGI), and in 1584, having been licensed by Sir Walter Raleigh to sell wine in Cambridge, was so severely impeded in this by scholars of Cambridge University and one Baxter, 'an esquire beadle', that Keymor's wife's life was threatened. Despite Raleigh's efforts on Keymor's behalf, the matter was referred to the Kings Bench. Although he lost his case, Keymor was still trading two years later, although it seems likely that he was eventually stopped. It is likely that the periods of travel abroad (to which he refers in his writings) began in the 1590s. In 1601 he wrote a treatise on the fishing undustry for the Queen, in which he demonstrated the importance of the industry and related its wealth to the wealth generated by Spain in the New World. This was followed by pamphlets on the cloth trade and other subjects in which Keymor puts himself forward as an early advocate of free trade. The particular pamphlet represented here, which is assigned to 'about 1620' by archivists in the PRO and MF Lloyd Prichard of the University of Auckland, was later taken as the work of Sir Walter Raleigh, and published several times under his name. According to Lloyd Prichard's introduction in Original Papers regarding Trade in England and Abroad drawn up by John Keymer for information of King James I about 1620 (New York, 1967), the last known mention of Keymor is a deputation of various lords to him in 1622 to discuss his economic theories, shortly after which he is presumed to have died.
From the guide to the Keymor's treatise on trade, c1620, (University of Exeter)
