1525?-1611

British merchant and explorer who made significant contributions to English trade in Russian and Central Asia. In 1557, Jenkinson, an explorer interested in establishing new markets for English merchants, traveled to Russia for the Muscovy Company to build new trade opportunities in China using company contacts in Moscow. With letters of introduction from czar Ivan IV, he continued on to Central Asia to the Caspian Sea. Jenkinson's party, who at one point joined a camel caravan in the desert, were the first Englishmen to reach the trading city of Bukhara (now in Uzbekistan) in December 1558. He left Bukhara in March 1559 on another trade caravan, eventually reaching the Caspian Sea then Moscow and finally London. In 1561, Jenkinson returned to Persia seeking further trade opportunities and made two more trips to Russia (1566 and 1571) before retiring to England, where he died in 1611.