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Richard Cocks was the first head of the [[British East India Company]] (EIC) factory at [[Hirado]].
Cocks was 47 years old when he arrived in Japan in [[1613]], aboard the ''[[Clove]]'', alongside [[John Saris]]. Saris brought formal letters and numerous gifts from King James I, and with the help of [[William Adams]] (who had been in Japan since [[1600]] and was a close confidant to [[Tokugawa Ieyasu|Ieyasu]]) obtained trading privileges for the Company. Saris and the ''Clove'' departed before the end of the year, and Cocks was left the head of a newly established Company factory in Hirado, with a staff of roughly one dozen men. Branch offices were established in Osaka, Kyoto, and Edo, and before long Cocks became relatively well-traveled within Japan, spending time in each of these cities and meeting with many of the most prominent officials in each.<ref>"[http://japan400.com/history/overview/ Historical Overview]." Four Hundredth Anniversary of Japan-British Relations. Accessed 23 January 2013.</ref> Cocks also traveled overseas, visiting [[Ayutthaya]] (Siam) on at least one occasion.<ref>Cesare Polenghi, ''Samurai of Ayutthaya: Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese warrior and merchant in early seventeenth-century Siam''. Bangkok: White Lotus Press (2009), 40-42.</ref>
In [[1614]], he requested permission from the shogunate to establish formal EIC trade with the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]], but was rebuffed.
Cocks married a Japanese woman known only as Matinga.<ref>It is quite common in the European-language documents of the time for Japanese names to be sorely misrepresented. It is unclear what Japanese name - or even a European Christian name - "Matinga" might be derived from.</ref> She was from an elite background, and was perhaps the daughter of a retainer of [[Matsuura Shigenobu]], lord of [[Hirado han]]. In addition to presumably spending considerable time together, Cocks also set her up with a nice home of her own, and servants, and regularly sent gifts and so forth. On at least one occasion he received her father as a guest. Matinga helped out with Company business in a number of ways, chiefly as a tutor of [[Japanese language]] for the English staff. While the two were separated for a time, she continued to exchange correspondence; however, in [[1621]] Cocks discovered she had been having an affair with fellow EIC employee [[Richard Wickham]], among others, and terminated their relationship.
Cocks is known to have sent gifts to the Japanese wives and children of [[William Adams]], [[Jan Joosten]], and a number of other prominent Dutchmen and Englishmen in Japan, and to have paid them visits; the documents seem to show a genuine fondness and personal relationship in many of these cases.
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==References==
*Gary Leupp, ''Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900'', A&C Black (2003), 59-60.
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[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Foreigners]]
[[Category:Christians]]
[[Category:Merchants]]
