AYLWARD, John. Letter signed to the merchant John Aylward in London concerning his mercantile interests in Sicily from his business partners Chamberlain, Slocomb & Lee. Messina [Sicily], 15 September 1698 (Irish Jacobite merchant trading with Sicily)

Letter signed, ink on paper, in English. Folio. Written on one page with the integral address-panel on the verso; folded for posting; traces of wafer seal; small filing holes and edge wear not affecting sense; lightly toned, strong, legible hand in fine condition.
This mercantile letter dated 15 September 1698 was sent from Sicily to London, updating the Irish Jacobite merchant and banker John Aylward (d.1705) with news from his business partners Chamberlain, Slocomb & Lee in Messina. Aylward, originally from Waterford, was principal of one of the Franco-Irish trading houses set up after the Cromwellian exodus from Ireland. In Malaga by 1672, he was at St. Malo 1687-98, then at London until his death. His import-export business traded in a wide variety of goods, including citrus fruits, cloth, baize, herrings, stockings, lemons and wine. The text includes mention of business with the firm Enys & Aldington of Cadiz, the prices of various silks and the threat of “Sally men”, Moroccan pirates based at the port of Salé. Much of Aylward’s correspondence has been dispersed, however a portion remains intact at Arundel Castle (see: F.W. Steer, ed., Arundel Castle Archives I, 1968). There are also some letters at the National Library of Ireland.
John Aylward, originally of Waterford, was probably the son of that John Aylward of Faithlegg, Co. Waterford, whom Burke’s Landed Gentry for 1849 describes as having lost all his possessions in the Civil War. The latter’s son, Peter Aylward, is said to have married Ann Butler, and as letters survive in the Arundel Castle collection from several members of the Butler family, it seems like that a relationship existed between John Aylward and the family of that name at Waterford. John Aylward the merchant married Helena Porter, widow of Jacques De La Herse Trublet, and daughter of Matthew Porter, a merchant of Cadiz and St.Malo. Their daughter Mary married Henry Charles Howard of Greystoke, and was the mother of Charles Howard who in 1777 became 10th Duke of Norfolk.
John Aylward traded with Spain, Italy, the Low Countries, France and England. Another branch of the Aylward family of Faithlegg, County Waterford was transported to Connacht in the mid 17th century. Peter Aylward was confirmed in his possession of an estate of over 2,400 acres in the parish of Ballynakill, barony of Leitrim, county Galway by patent dated 1677.

[Cat 162]