John Cabot Academy

Our school is named after the famous explorer, John Cabot (c. 1450 to c. 1500). He was born Giovanni Caboto and came from Italy. While he’s known as Giovanni in Italy today, he called himself ‘Zuan’. That is the Venetian form of John, which, despite the spelling, is pronounced a bit like a cross between Jean and Juan (the French and Spanish forms of ‘John’). Hence he became known as John Cabot as an anglicised version of his name. He moved to England to find new opportunities and was given a grant by Henry VII to search and find new lands to claim for both the king himself and for England. John Cabot is most famous for setting sail from Bristol on board his ship, The Matthew (which our Academy logo represents). There is a reconstruction of the ship in the harbour in Bristol’s city centre. It is most likely that he came to Bristol to find financial backing for his voyage where he hoped to find a quicker route to Asia. He sailed to Canada and proclaimed the land he found there as the ‘Newfoundland’ which it is still called to this day. However, he mistakenly believed he was in Asia! As a result of his discoveries, he was the first early modern European to discover North America. He did not come across native Americans during this voyage, but it did impact later voyages of discovery. Other explorers used John Cabot as an example and felt that they could also travel to new countries and take the land and resources they found there. His actions became a blueprint for further colonisation of other countries and it is known that in 1502, another expedition (not Cabot’s) arrived back in England with three native Americans who could have been taken against their will. These people later became servants in Henry VII’s household. However, by this time John Cabot was dead, so he could not have been involved in this.