John Nele was a Calais sailor and fisherman (and also a member of the garrison) several times recorded in the 1530s and 1540s in terms which suggest that he was well known for his skill and courage. In 1533 the duke of Norfolk asked for `John Nele's boat to go with me' when crossing the Channel, and two years later Edward Foxe, about to cross from England on embassy, asked that Nele be sent to help transport him to Calais. In 1545 he was the only sailor who dared to try to take out a boat with letters for England in the teeth of a violent north-westerly gale, while in 1547 he managed to take sugar and soap off a Portuguese ship that ran aground at Sangatte, on the coast south of Calais, and was deserted by its crew. M. St Clare Byrne, The Lisle letters, 6 vols. (Chicago, 1981); Letters and papers of Henry VIII 20:2 no. 857; Calendar of state papers, foreign, 1547-1553, 310.