Richard Amerike
Merchant and sheriff · United Kingdom · On the map · Historical Figures · Lived 1440 to 1503 · aged 63
Richard ap Meryk, anglicised to Richard Amerike was an English merchant, royal customs officer and later, sheriff of Bristol. Several claims have been made for Amerike by popular writers of the late twentieth century.
Richard Amerike is read about 36 times a day, in 10 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 9 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 113 days, one point a day.
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Media & music
![The 1522 monumental brass of John Broke (or Brook). On the right side is his wife, Joan, daughter of Richard Amerike.[15]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Monumental_brass_of_John_and_Joanna_Brook_-_St_Mary_Redcliffe_-_PXL_20251107_154909843.jpg/1280px-Monumental_brass_of_John_and_Joanna_Brook_-_St_Mary_Redcliffe_-_PXL_20251107_154909843.jpg)
About this person
One was that he was the major funder of the voyage of exploration launched from Bristol by the Venetian John Cabot in 1497, and that Amerike was the owner of Cabot's ship, the Matthew. The other claim revived a theory first proposed in 1908 by a Bristolian scholar and amateur historian, Alfred Hudd. Hudd's theory, greatly elaborated by later writers, suggested that the continental name America was derived from Amerike's surname in gratitude for his sponsorship of Cabot's successful discovery expedition to 'the new World'. However, neither claim is backed up by hard evidence, and the consensus view is that America is named after Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer.
