MALBON, Richard (d. before 1661)

Richard Malbon [Malbone], a London merchant related to Theophilus Eaton, attended the church of John Davenport, St Stephen's Coleman Street. He emigrated in 1637 with his family (including his son, Samuel Malbon*) in Davenport and Eaton's company. With Eaton, Edward Hopkins* and David Yale*, Malbon was one of the most prominent merchants to go to New England.

Malbon settled at New Haven at the start, in 1638. He was soon a church member and assistant in the New Haven Colony, and captain of the New Haven artillery company. In 1643, his daughter Martha was convicted for stealing from her parents and ‘filthy dalliances’ with servants. John Winthrop noted: ‘There was a piece of justice executed at New Haven, which, being the first in that kind, is not unworthy to be recorded. Mr Malbon, one of the magistrates there, had a daughter … which was openly whipped, her father joining in the sentence.’ In 1644 the colony appointed Malbon to attend distant meetings of New England confederation, with Stephen Goodyear* or Thomas Gregson*. He also acted, with Gregson, as an arbitrator to resolve local disputes out of court. New Haven's merchants investigated the possibility of a trading settlement in Delaware, but without success. Then the townspeople invested in building a ship, the Fellowship, to export goods directly to England. With Eaton, Gregson and Goodyear, Malbon joined the ‘Company of Merchants of New Haven’ who loaded the Fellowship with cargo.