According to English accounts Richard Cozens was born in South Hampshire in 1674. It is also recorded that Richard Cozens was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England on the 29th May 1674 in at least one other Russian account. Although no documentary evidence has been found to date to either prove, or disprove, that there was a connection between Joseph Noy, another Master Shipbuilder to Peter the Great and Richard Cozens, it does appear from archive sources that possibly members of the Cozens shipbuilding family were also working at Portsmouth Dockyard at the same time as Joseph Noy in the early 1690s. This does make it highly probably that they both met during their formative years spent in Hampshire. They may well have indeed both worked together on the building of the ships "Poole" and "Jersey" at East Cowes where Joseph Noy owned a shipyard, before then proceeding to London in 1698, where they both eventually signed up for the Russian service of Peter I. Printed below is a translation of an extract taken from a Russian text of how Richard Cozens and Joseph Noy had met and joined Peter's Russian service, revealing the interest of Peter in obtaining the services of English shipbuilders:

…"During his stay in England Peter the Great was greatly impressed by the acquaintance of highly intelligent English sailor - Admiral Carmarthen, who was solidly erudite in the theory and practice of shipbuilding. Following his advice Peter studied at the English Royal Shipyard in Deptford. Here the English Admiral introduced him to several of its shipwrights. He especially liked three of them - John Den (Deane), Joseph Nye (Noy) and the youngest of them Richard Cozens…"He succeeded in persuading Deane and Noy to sign agreements to come to Russia immediately, whilst Cozens promised to think over the Czar's offer further"... " In 1700 Cozens signed a contract with a Russian agent in London. … He soon came to Voronezh… then 26 years old; Richard Cozens was then two years younger than the Russian Czar"…(Translated extract taken from the Russian text of: "Peter's Shipwrights", by Israel Adolfovich Bykhovsky, Published by 'Sudostroyeniye', 1982).

Due the lack of documentary evidence on Richard here in the UK, we shall have to piece together his life from what little information we can find in the archives, supplemented with mention of him in various other historic accounts. The most informative sources to date on genealogical data for Richard Cozens has been through the earlier mention of him in Oppes book on Alexander & John Robert Cozens, his son & grandson , the landscape painters, and more recently the information contained in Kim Sloan's "notes" in her excellent book, also on the art of Alexander & John Robert . However we shall try to give a brief impression of his not inconsiderable achievements in this article from a combination of both English and Russian sources. For example as a sign of affection for his shipbuilders Peter would often act has God-father to the their children, as illustrated by the following account:

…"Mr Davenport, an English Shipbuilder being employed in the yard about a ship, that was on the Stocks, the Czar came & ordered some alterations to be made. The Builder told him he could not do it that day, because his Wife was brought to bed, & he must go home and get the Child baptized. Well says Peter is it a boy, yes replyed Mr Builder, then go directly and get the Parson & I will come and be God-father. Accordingly he came, as the custom is, Saluted the good Woman in the Straw, & made Her the usuall Present of a piece of gold. The Ceremony being over, the Czar asked if there was anything for dinner"… "This very boy I knew when he was a man"….

(Extract taken from John Bell of Antermony's "Sundry Anecdotes of Peter the First", Source: National Library of Scotland, Carmichael and Gordon Papers MS 109, ff. 10-16, but also published in Dixon, "Britain And Russia In The Age Of Peter The Great", Historical Documents, Document No.148, pp.136-138, published by the School of Slavonic & East European Studies, London, 1998).

Robert Davenport had been assistant shipbuilder to Richard Cozens in Russia, and father to Mary, (Richard was later to marry Mary nee Davenport, Roberts daughter) who according to accounts had been known to Richard from her early childhood days spent in Woolwich. One can only assume from this, that they had perhaps met during the time Richard had spent in London prior to his departure for Russia in the middle of 1700, before they later married in St. Petersburg, Russia in the early 1700s. Again there is no actual record of a marriage entry being recorded, although the birth of their children is: Mary b.1722, Margaretta Maria b.1724, Richard b.1726, and Sarah b.1732. The earlier birth dates of Richard & Mary's two sons, Alexander and Peter, are also not recorded here in the British Factory Records at St Petersburg, but have been established as 1717 & 1720 respectively.

Joseph Noy had actually been the first major English Shipbuilder to arrive in Russia at this time, arriving at Archangel in June 1698, together with the Physician Baldwin Andrews. He was later to be joined by his friend Richard Cozens (who arrived in the mid-summer of 1700 according to Perry's account , following the early death of John Deane, the son of the eminent English shipbuilder, Sir Anthony Deane) and "were both to become the dominant figures in the building of the Russian Fleet of Peter", (Quote from A. Cross, "By The Banks Of The Neva", Chapter 5, "Sur le pied anglais": shipbuilders and officers in the Russian Navy, p.165).

In the late summer of 1700 Richard Cozens, commenced work on building his first two ships, the 70 Gun "Old Oak" launched by Peter in Feb/April 1705, and the "Sleeping Lion", also another 70 Gunner. Here Cozens was assisted by Davenport, his future father-in-law, and Under-Master, together with their assistant Robert Hadley, whilst his two apprentices were William Snellgrove & Francis Kitchen. Henry Bird was also another joint Under-Master , & another apprentice Leonard Chapman also assisted both Noy & Cozens. After the arrival of Cozens this partnership of Cozens and Noy began to produce some of the finest ships in Peters new fleet. In fact Noy & Cozens were also to become something of favourites to Peter, often attending Peters infamous drinking bouts! Richard Cozens was also later to build Peters Flagship the "Ingermanland" launched at St. Petersburg in 1715, which was named after the site where St Petersburg was founded (Ingermanlandia), and was described by Peter as …"running faster than all other ships" and "one of the best sailing ships ever" . This ship was later to be used by Peter in his role has Supreme Commander in Chief of the United Fleet (English, Danish, Dutch and Russian) on August 5th 1716, when he led the United fleet and a flotilla of some 600 other merchant ships from Copenhagen to Bornholm Island under his Czars standard.

Noy & Cozens had both remained in the South at Voronezh until around January 1704, with Noy building the "Flower of War" a ship of 60 Guns and the "Scorpion" before they were transferred to the shipyards of Tavrov and Osereda. Here they built several other ships between them, many of which were however later abandoned Russia's defeat by the Turks at the Battle of Azov. (During this time they built a total of fourteen ships, twelve at Tavrov, four of 80 Guns in 1707, three of 48 Guns in 1709, & one of 24, also in 1709, followed by another four of 48 Guns in 1710). Cozens built two other ships at Osereda in September 1711 , before then being transferred to St. Petersburg to begin work on the "Ingermanland", (where Noy was also later to build several other ships, i.e. two 66 Gun ships the "Isaac Victory" in 1719 & the "Astrakhan" in 1720, followed by two 6 Gun ships in 1716, the "Jupiter" & "Donder", & three 32 Gun ships the "Kreuisser", "Windhunt" & the "St. Ilia" in 1723/4, later followed by the "Peter II" a 54 Gun ship in 1728) .

On the 12th May 1715, Cozens launched the "Ingermanland", a ship of 66 Guns, at St. Petersburg, followed by the re-built "Moscow" of 64 Guns, quite possibly followed by the much smaller 6 Gun Bombship, the "Etna" in 1716, (the same year in which Joseph Noy had also launched two similar sized vessels, the "Jupiter" & the "Donder") . In 1718 in a personal letter dated 22nd June received from Peter who was aboard the "Ingermanland" sailing off St. Petersburg, Peter mentions the sailing qualities of two of Cozens earlier ships, the "Nepteun" and "Hango".
In January 1721 there was the launch of yet another ship the "Apostle Andrew" (built jointly by Cozens & Ramsey), which was again launched by Peter. It must also be remembered that during this period both Cozens & Noy were also training Russian shipwrights as well has supervising their own English colleagues at St. Petersburg, although the two other English shipbuilders Browne & Ramsey were also to produce a fair amount of ships in their own right. In 1723 in recognition of their services both Cozens & Noy were promoted to the rank of Captain Commander, which according to Peters Table of Ranks, bestowed upon them the privileges of Russian Nobility.
Cozens launched yet another ship in 1724, this time the 66 Gun "Derbent", before then being transferred to Archangel by Peter with a team of some 150 carpenters and other workers, to assist with the building of new Admiralty buildings. Prior to his departure, however, Cozens was again to design another new ship, the 66 Gun "KREML" ('Kremlin'), but Robert Davenport was to finish this. Following the death and later funeral of Peter in 1725, which both Cozens and Joseph Noy attended, (in fact it is mentioned that Noy was given a position of honour at the funeral, where he was to hold the strings of the funeral canopy surrounding Peters coffin during the funeral procession), Cozens remained in St. Petersburg, but was later to return to Archangel. Richard was however to build a further ship at St. Petersburg, the 66 Gun "Nathalia", (1727), before his return there.

In Archangel Richard was to build a further four ships. In 1734 the "Archangelsk Town" & the "North Star", followed in 1735 by the "St. Andrew" (although the author has found evidence to suggest that Ramsey possibly built this ship jointly with him at St.Petersburg), plus also in the same year, the 32 Gun frigate "Hector". After his exhaustive labours in the Russian service of Peter for a period of some thirty-five years, and after taking Russian citizenship for the last two years of his life, Richard Cozens died suddenly on the 11th December 1735, at the age of 61, being buried in the Admiralty cemetery, where it is stated a memorial still remains.
What has recently come to light is just how well socially connected Cozens and Noy both were here in the UK. In fact Samuel Holden a prominent City man, Governor of the Russia Company, Politician and Chairman of the Dissenting Deputies Committee at the time of the Walpole government, and Governor of the Bank of England, also acted as personal attorney/friend to Richard Cozens in respect of some English property, whilst he was resident in Russia. Whilst Joseph Noy was also corresponding with various highly placed government officials, such has Ellis the Secretary of State, and Joseph Dudley, Governor of the Isle of Wight.

IF ANYONE HAS ANY FURTHER INFORMATION ON RICHARD COZENS OR HIS FAMILY AND WOULD LIKE TO SHARE THIS WITH THE AUTHOR FOR HIS RESEARCH PROJECT,

PLEASE CONTACT KEN

kenkaico@clara.co.uk

Note: The body of this article has been extracted from a more in depth study undertaken by the author.