James Alday

Who was James Alday?

James Alday was a 16th-century English navigator, explorer and privateer. He participated in raids against the Spanish with fellow privateers James Logan and William Cooke during the 1540s and is credited, along with Sebastian Cabot and Henry Ostrich, of the start of regular trading between England and the Barbary coast.

He himself claimed to have organized the earliest known voyage to the Barbary coast "inventing the Barbary trade" and, although intending to command the expedition himself, Alday was forced to turn his command to another due to illness. This voyage was not successful however and a rival expedition commanded by Thomas Windham became the first to arrive there in 1551. His claim has generally been dismissed partly due to his involvement in piracy as well as lack of evidence.