Portrait of Sir William Hussey (1642-1691), three-quarter-length, in a dark grey coat and gold wrap

Born into a prominent Lincolnshire family, Sir William Hussey initially forged a career as a merchant in the City of London in the wake of the civil war, but his interest in public affairs led him to foreign shores. He was initially apprenticed to the Levant trader Thomas Murthwaite in 1655, and would become a key figure in the Levant Company, being elected its deputy governor in 1688. He was also one of the assistants of the Royal Africa Company from 1683 to 1685 and from 1688 to 1690. In April 1691, Hussey was appointed ambassador to Constantinople, charged with brokering peace between the Turks and the Austrian Habsburgs. Though his missives back to England talked hopefully of success, his mission came to a fateful end when he contracted a fever and died in September 1691.