biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (18th-c)
|
| biography:
| English merchant captain, engaged in trading in the West Indies. In 1731 he alleged that his sloop had been boarded by a Spanish guarda costa (coastal guard), and that, though no proof of smuggling had been found, he had been tortured, and had his ear torn off. He produced the alleged ear in 1738 in the House of Commons, and so helped to force Walpole into the ‘War of Jenkins' Ear’ against Spain in 1739, which merged into the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–8). Jenkins served with the East India Company, and for a time as Governor of St Helena. |
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