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Transition from the 1500s to the 1600s
Cookery Books
The late 1500s was the first time that cookery books began to be published on a regular basis. Many of these books concentrated on the 'secrets' of the wealthy - the confectioneries and remedies hidden in the closets of noblewomen, a powerful selling point in this period. Increasingly these books were aimed at women, as is revealed by titles such as The Good Huswifes Jewell. However, it is estimated that only between 5 and 10 percent of women were literate at this time - add to this the fact that the books were expensive commodities (as were the ingredients for the recipes), and it seems likely that the market for these books was confined to a small affluent area of society.
A turbulent century for England and her colonies
This was an era of war, fire, plague and execution - and it was a period in which English cultural life was transformed. The dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s had led to new land ownership, and consequently to a new class of non-aristocratic landowners. The power battles between this new class and the monarchy would lead to civil war, to the execution of King Charles I, to a decade (the 1650s) of a Commonwealth government under Oliver Cromwell, and finally to the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in 1660.
Rich appetites
Despite this political turbulence, the new class of landowners was here to stay. And, as is typical, new wealth led to new markets and new ways to spend money. Towns became increasingly fashionable, and began to bulge with spending opportunities. London became the richest source of luxury foodstuffs in the country.
Throughout the century there was a growing fascination for food from mainland Europe. It is likely that this was fuelled by political events, such as the marriage of Charles I to the French princess Henrietta Maria in 1625, the forced exile in France and Holland of many supporters of the royalist cause during the Commonwealth, and Charles II's marriage to the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza in 1662. In any case, foreign food was all the rage. Samuel Pepys was extremely impressed to learn that his friend the Earl of Sandwich intended to employ a French chef, writing in his diary that the Earl had 'become a perfect courtier'. While the Great Fire of London raged, Pepys wrote of his feverish attempts to save his possessions, scrambling in panic for his bottles of wine and his parmesan cheese, all of which he buried safely in his garden.
Foreign flavours
French cuisine enlivened the English palate, flavouring its food with anchovies, capers and wine, and introducing coulis, roux, ragouts and fricassés. Fancy French dishes were nicknamed kickshaws, after 'quelquechose', the French word for 'something'. The influence of the Continent brought a greater taste for savoury dishes, and less of the traditional combinations of sweet and sour flavours. Thanks to the Europeans, the English realised that it was perfectly safe to eat raw fruit and vegetables, and began to enjoy salads with their meals. The first English coffee house was opened in London in 1652 by Pasqua Rosee, a servant to a Turkish merchant, who brought from Turkey his ingredients and his expertise. The drink became a huge hit, as did the coffee houses, which swarmed with fashionable social life throughout the century.
Nonetheless, traditional English food retained its popularity - the English still greedily tucked into their cakes, pies and puddings. Even after the death of Charles I (1652) there was strong nostalgia for pre-war royal traditions, and many recipes were tinged by a reverence for this faded glory.
Cookery Books
The reign of Oliver Cromwell sparked a renewed interest in the customs of the old aristocracy, and cookery books appeared to be opening magical doors onto the glittering secrets of the wealthy.
Following the fall of the monarchy, many distinguished chefs lost their jobs, and this is likely to be the reason for the sudden wave of new cookery books at this time - these professionals would have been searching for new ways to make money. The political situation also meant that many people were moving up the social scale. It is therefore in this century that cookery books begin to instruct those unfamiliar with the etiquette of the wealthy, guiding them on subjects such as bills of fare, or servant behavior.
Although most 17th century cookery books were written by men, many of the recipes found in the books were originally devised by women. Gervase Markham, for example, admits in his book Countrey Contentments that the book's recipes were originally concocted by an 'honourable countess'. It was not uncommon for male cookery book writers to transcribe recipes found in unpublished manuscripts, many of which were written by aristocratic women, who would have had regular access to key ingredients. It is estimated that only around 10 percent of women were literate in the mid 17th century, and many were only taught to read, and not to write.
From the British Library.
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Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
1615 Gervase Markham's The English Housewife - "House-Wifely Secrets" for Perfumes & Remedies
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These snippets come from Gervase Markham's 1615 The English Housewif. This excerpt appreared in the always entertaining and educational blog Fragments this morning. Fragments publishes fragments, texts, and snippets from Shakespeare's England, and is written by a skilled PhD researcher in London who has a great sense of humor.
Countrey Contentments or The English Huswife was written by Gervase (or Jervis) Markham (English author, c 1568-1637) in 1615, and was a best-seller of its time - reprints continued up until 1683. Although the title of the book suggests that it is written for a female readership, it is thought that very few women (between 5 and 10%) were literate at the time. Historians believe that most readers would have been members of the clergy, the gentry and the professions.
Markham (1568-1637), poet and writer, was the third son of Sir Robert Markham of Gotham, Nottinghamshire. He served in the army in the Low Countries and then in Ireland, he spoke several modern languages, and was knowledgeable on the subjects of horse-breeding and forestry. His work included various tragedies and comedies, a study of horsemanship, an account of his military experiences, and a number of books on managing a country household.
Basil-Besler, Hortus-Eystettensis 1613
When our English Housewife is exact in the rules before rehearsed, .shee shall then sort her mind to the understanding of other House-wifely secrets, right comfortable and meet for her use.
First I would have her furnish herself of verie good Stills, for the distillation of all kindes of Waters, which Stills would either be of Tinne or sweet Earth, and in them shee shall distill all sorts of waters meete for the health of her Household, as Sage water which is good for Rhumes and Collickes, Radish water which is good for the stone, Angelica water good for infection, Vine water for itchings, Rose water and Eye-bright water for dimme sights, Treacle water for mouth cankers, Allum [mineral salt] water for old Ulcers, and a world of others, any of which will last a full yeare at the least.
Then shee shall know that the best waters for the smoothing of the skinne and keeping the face delicate and amiable are those which are distilled from Beane flowers, Strawberries, Vine leaves, Goats milke, from the whites of Egges, from the Flowers of Lillies, any of which will last a yeare or better.
To make an excellent sweet water for perfume you shall take Basill, Mint, Marjorum, Sage, Balme, Lavender and Rosemary, of each one handfull of Cloves, Cinamon and Nutmegges, then three or four Pome-citrons [a citrus fruit resembling a large lemon] cut into slices. Infuse all these into Damaske-rose water the space of three daies, and then distill it with a gentle fire of Charcoale, then when you have put it into a very cleann glasse, take Musk, Civet and Ambergreece [OED: A wax like substance found floating in tropical seas] and put into a rag of fine Lawne, and then hang it within the water. This being either burnt upon a hot pan, or else boiled in perfuming pannes with Cloves, Bay-leaves, and Lemmon pills, will make the most delicate perfume that may be without any offence, and will last the longest of all other sweet perfumes.
To perfume gloves excellently, take the oyle of sweet Almonds, oyle of Nutmegges, oile of Benjamin [a sweet tree gum] each a dramme, of Ambergreece one grain, fat Musket (Musk) two graines. Mixe them all together and grinde them upon a Painters stone, and then anoint the gloves therewith. Yet before you anoint them let them be dampishly moistened with Damaske Rose water.
To make very good washing balls take Storaxe [fragrant gum resin] of both kindes, Benjamin [a tree resin], Calamus Aromaticus [fragrant reed?], Labdanum [another gum resin used in perfuming] of each a like, and braise them to powder with Cloves and Arras (?) Them beate them all with a sufficient quantitie of Sope till it bee stiffe, then with your hand you shall worke it like paste and make round balls thereof..
These snippets come from Gervase Markham's 1615 The English Housewif. This excerpt appreared in the always entertaining and educational blog Fragments this morning. Fragments publishes fragments, texts, and snippets from Shakespeare's England, and is written by a skilled PhD researcher in London who has a great sense of humor.
Countrey Contentments or The English Huswife was written by Gervase (or Jervis) Markham (English author, c 1568-1637) in 1615, and was a best-seller of its time - reprints continued up until 1683. Although the title of the book suggests that it is written for a female readership, it is thought that very few women (between 5 and 10%) were literate at the time. Historians believe that most readers would have been members of the clergy, the gentry and the professions.
Markham (1568-1637), poet and writer, was the third son of Sir Robert Markham of Gotham, Nottinghamshire. He served in the army in the Low Countries and then in Ireland, he spoke several modern languages, and was knowledgeable on the subjects of horse-breeding and forestry. His work included various tragedies and comedies, a study of horsemanship, an account of his military experiences, and a number of books on managing a country household.
Basil-Besler, Hortus-Eystettensis 1613When our English Housewife is exact in the rules before rehearsed, .shee shall then sort her mind to the understanding of other House-wifely secrets, right comfortable and meet for her use.
First I would have her furnish herself of verie good Stills, for the distillation of all kindes of Waters, which Stills would either be of Tinne or sweet Earth, and in them shee shall distill all sorts of waters meete for the health of her Household, as Sage water which is good for Rhumes and Collickes, Radish water which is good for the stone, Angelica water good for infection, Vine water for itchings, Rose water and Eye-bright water for dimme sights, Treacle water for mouth cankers, Allum [mineral salt] water for old Ulcers, and a world of others, any of which will last a full yeare at the least.
Then shee shall know that the best waters for the smoothing of the skinne and keeping the face delicate and amiable are those which are distilled from Beane flowers, Strawberries, Vine leaves, Goats milke, from the whites of Egges, from the Flowers of Lillies, any of which will last a yeare or better.
To make an excellent sweet water for perfume you shall take Basill, Mint, Marjorum, Sage, Balme, Lavender and Rosemary, of each one handfull of Cloves, Cinamon and Nutmegges, then three or four Pome-citrons [a citrus fruit resembling a large lemon] cut into slices. Infuse all these into Damaske-rose water the space of three daies, and then distill it with a gentle fire of Charcoale, then when you have put it into a very cleann glasse, take Musk, Civet and Ambergreece [OED: A wax like substance found floating in tropical seas] and put into a rag of fine Lawne, and then hang it within the water. This being either burnt upon a hot pan, or else boiled in perfuming pannes with Cloves, Bay-leaves, and Lemmon pills, will make the most delicate perfume that may be without any offence, and will last the longest of all other sweet perfumes.
To perfume gloves excellently, take the oyle of sweet Almonds, oyle of Nutmegges, oile of Benjamin [a sweet tree gum] each a dramme, of Ambergreece one grain, fat Musket (Musk) two graines. Mixe them all together and grinde them upon a Painters stone, and then anoint the gloves therewith. Yet before you anoint them let them be dampishly moistened with Damaske Rose water.
To make very good washing balls take Storaxe [fragrant gum resin] of both kindes, Benjamin [a tree resin], Calamus Aromaticus [fragrant reed?], Labdanum [another gum resin used in perfuming] of each a like, and braise them to powder with Cloves and Arras (?) Them beate them all with a sufficient quantitie of Sope till it bee stiffe, then with your hand you shall worke it like paste and make round balls thereof..
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Virginia's Pocahontas d 1617
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Pocahontas
Pocahontas in 1616, Simon van de Passe (Dutch artist, 1595-1647). This engraving is the only known portrait of Pocahontas rendered from life. During her stay in England, Dutch engraver Simon van de Passe captured her likeness and recorded that she, like the artist himself, was 21 years old. The image presents Pocahontas as a princess in the European sense; the inscription describes her as the daughter of a mighty emperor, and the ostrich feather in her hand is a symbol of royalty.
This essay was written by Helen C. Roundtree. "Pocahontas (d. 1617)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Ed. Brendan Wolfe. 28 Apr. 2011. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. 5 Apr. 2011
See this article in the Encyclopedia Virginia.
Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, paramount chief of an alliance of Virginia Indians in Tidewater Virginia. An iconic figure in American history, Pocahontas is largely known for saving the life of the Jamestown colonist John Smith and then romancing him—although both events are unlikely to be true. She did meet Smith several times, sometimes serving as Powhatan's silent figurehead and a symbolic liaison between the chief and the English colonists; she was not, however, a "princess" or a diplomat in any modern sense. Sometime around 1610, she married an Indian named Kocoum, and in 1613 she was captured by the English and confined at Jamestown, where she converted to Christianity and married the colonist John Rolfe. The marriage, approved by Powhatan, brought an end to the First Anglo-Powhatan War (1609–1614) and set the stage for Pocahontas's visit to London in 1616. At the request of the Virginia Company of London, she met both King James I and the bishop of London, after which she reunited briefly with Smith. Early in her return voyage to Virginia, she became ill and died at Gravesend in March 1617. In the centuries since, Pocahontas's life has slipped into myth, serving to represent Virginia's early claim to be the foundation-place of America. Many elite Virginians, meanwhile, have tenuously claimed her as a relative, even leading to a "Pocahontas clause" in the Racial Integrity Act of 1924.
Early Years
Pocahontas was one of dozens of children born to Powhatan, the paramount chief of Tsenacomoco, a political alliance of Algonquian-speaking Indians in Tidewater Virginia. Her mother's name and tribal origin were never recorded, although no English colonist ever suggested that she was not an Indian. (The increasingly European-looking portraits made of Pocahontas over time represent artistic license.) In her infancy, Pocahontas was given the secret personal name Matoaka; later, she was known as Amonute. Neither name can be translated.
Powhatan had many wives, and custom decreed that he keep a wife only until she had a child by him, after which he sent her back to her people and supported her from a distance. As a result, Pocahontas had no full siblings and many half siblings. When each child was ready to leave home and become part of a working household—probably at eight to ten years of age—he or she moved to Powhatan's capital, freeing the mother to remarry.
Late in her childhood, Pocahontas likely joined Powhatan's large, busy household, where everybody worked, even Powhatan himself. In addition to their daily jobs, members of the household labored to produce grand feasts on important occasions. Pocahontas, meanwhile, probably participated in what was traditionally women's work—farming, collecting wild foods and firewood, making utensils, and cooking and cleaning—and as a result had little contact with her father or other males during the day. In the evenings, she probably had stiff competition for her father's attention; still, by 1607 she was his favorite child. Her new name may suggest why. William Strachey, who lived at Jamestown from 1610 until 1611, translated "Pocahontas" as "little wanton." In Strachey's time, "wanton" meant not only bawdy but also cruel and undisciplined. In other words, it's possible that Pocahontas may have teased Powhatan about his age (then about sixty) and his multitude of wives, and he may have been delighted by it.
John Smith
Pocahontas's first opportunity to see an Englishman came late in December 1607, about eight months after the founding of Jamestown, when John Smith was brought to Powhatan's capital at Werowocomoco. Smith had initially been a captive, but after being vetted by the high priests, he arrived as an honored guest. In The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624), he famously wrote that he was threatened with death only to be rescued by Pocahontas, a story that subsequently became legend. However, in a more reliable account—a letter written a few months after his visit—Smith said only that he was feasted and then interviewed by Powhatan. This version of events makes sense, given how eager the Indian leadership was to find out why the English had come and stayed in Virginia. The interview took place inside Powhatan's house, a space large enough to accommodate only a few dozen people at most. In fact, Pocahontas probably was not even there; being then a young girl of perhaps eleven, she was needed to help with food preparation and washing up afterward.
In the spring of 1608, Pocahontas traveled to Jamestown as part of a delegation charged with negotiating the release of several Indian captives. Sent as a silent reminder of Powhatan's trust in Smith, she was accompanied by several fully armed adult men, one of whom, Rawhunt, did all the talking. The captives were released—although to Pocahontas rather than Rawhunt, presumably because she served as a symbol of Powhatan. In his 1624 account, Smith hints that Pocahontas, acting as a diplomat, led the party, but earlier eyewitness accounts say no such thing. Even the daughter of a powerful chief like Powhatan would have left military and diplomatic matters to her male relatives. This was especially true for Pocahontas, who had not only uncles but also two older half brothers serving Powhatan as appointed district chiefs.
With his later accounts suggesting that Pocahontas saved him personally as well as (in some accounts) the entire Jamestown colony, Smith had a tendency to attribute to Powhatan's daughter power she was unlikely to have possessed. That tradition continues in the frequent modern-day references to her as a "princess." Pocahontas lived in a society in which the paramount chief's position was matrilineal. In other words, Powhatan's brothers, sisters, and his sisters' children were his heirs, not his own children. As such, Pocahontas was not a princess in the European sense, and next to her favored half brothers, she was relatively powerless, either to gain entry to that first feast with John Smith or later to act on behalf of the English. On most occasions when she visited Jamestown, she probably tagged along with adults, as did other young people eager to gawk at the foreigners. Smith later described Pocahontas's "wild train," or mischievous retinue, while Strachey described her goading the English boys into turning cartwheels with her around the fort.
From the autumn of 1608 onward, relations between the Jamestown colony and Powhatan became more strained, culminating in the First Anglo-Powhatan War. Powhatan moved his capital west to Orapax, on the Chickahominy River, and out of the reach of English ships. Smith departed Virginia in October 1609, and a story of Pocahontas traveling to Jamestown to ask after him is unlikely to be true; she would have been in danger of being taken as a hostage. Instead, she probably learned about Smith's departure through her father's intelligence channels.
Marriage, Capture, and Remarriage
What little is known about Pocahontas's next few years comes from William Strachey, whose interpreter, Machumps, was one of Powhatan's brothers-in-law. Through Machumps, Strachey learned that Pocahontas began menstruating sometime in 1610, soon after which she married an Indian named Kocoum, who is described by Strachey as a "private captain," or a warrior who was a commoner. There is no record of any children or of where the couple lived after the wedding.
During this time, the English began to expand their settlements beyond the Jamestown fort, including at Henricus, established on the James River in September 1611. Slowed but not stopped by Indian guerrilla attacks, the English by 1613 were sending ships to trade with the Potomac River tribes who were beginning to act beyond the control of Tsenacomoco. In April 1613, Captain Samuel Argall heard that Pocahontas was visiting Passapatanzy, a satellite town of the Patawomecks, one of his trading partners. Argall pressured the subchief, Iopassus (Japazaws), to assist him in taking her prisoner, promising an alliance against Powhatan. After conferring with his superior, Iopassus agreed, and with his wives' help, lured Pocahontas aboard Argall's ship. Argall promptly transported her to Jamestown and sent a ransom demand to her father.
Powhatan made an initial payment and then dithered for several months, during which Pocahontas remained at the English fort. According to English accounts she was treated well, although in a book published in 2007, Linwood "Little Bear" Custalow cites Powhatan oral tradition to argue that Pocahontas was raped while in the colonists' custody. Other historians have disputed that such oral tradition survived and instead argue that any mistreatment of Pocahontas would have gone against the interests of the English in their negotiations with Powhatan. A truce had been called, the Indians still far outnumbered the English, and the colonists feared retaliation.
In any event, Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Dale, with the help of Alexander Whitaker, the minister at Jamestown and Henricus, saw to it that she was trained in the ways of the Anglican Church. She was baptized and given the Christian name Rebecca, at which time she also revealed her secret name, Matoaka. By the time the English forced the issue of ransom payment in March 1614, she and John Rolfe apparently had fallen in love. A twenty-eight-year-old widower from a family in the English gentry, Rolfe had come to Virginia, with Dale and Strachey, in 1610 and over a dozen years made his fortune in tobacco. Dale assented to their marriage—as did Powhatan, who sent one of Pocahontas's uncles as a witness—and on or about April 5, 1614, the minister Richard Bucke performed it.
There is no record of where Pocahontas and Rolfe were married or where they lived after the wedding, although Rolfe owned land around Smith Fort, across the river from Jamestown. A son, Thomas, was born sometime later. Because the first recorded mention of him is on the occasion of his mother's death, the date and place of his birth are unknown; he could have been born on either side of the Atlantic any time between 1615 and 1617. As for Pocahontas's first marriage, to Kocoum, by Powhatan custom it ended when she was captured. Powhatan, meanwhile, called a halt to his ongoing war with the English. It is unlikely that Pocahontas negotiated the peace, as some writers have claimed, nor would she have been needed as an interpreter by then. Instead, she served as a figurehead—a symbol of peaceful relations and a Christianized "savage"—and in 1616 the Virginia Company of London paid her passage to England.
London
In an effort to raise funds on behalf of the Virginia Company, Rebecca Rolfe, as Pocahontas was now known, sailed to England in the spring of 1616 with her husband John Rolfe; Deputy Governor Dale; a retinue of young Indian women, some of whom would remain in England; and the priest Uttamatomakkin, a brother-in-law of Powhatan sent by the paramount chief as an observer. In particular, Uttamatomakkin was tasked with finding John Smith, meeting the English king, viewing the English god, and conducting a census of both the Englishmen and their trees. (An earlier Indian visitor, who saw only London and the Thames River, had mistakenly reported that there were next to no trees in England, explaining why the English sought timber in Virginia.) Uttamatomakkin would accomplish the first two objectives but fail with the rest, and his encounters with evangelistic clergymen such as Reverend Samuel Purchas would turn his sympathies forever against the English.
After landing in Plymouth in September 1616, the party traveled overland to London, so Pocahontas saw a good deal of southern England. Once in London, she was lodged and clothed at the Virginia Company's expense and an engraving was made of her by Simon van de Passe that was intended for circulation by the company in its fund-raising efforts. Pocahontas also was introduced into English society, presumably by the lieutenant governor and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Dale, a distant cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth. The wife of Virginia's governor, Thomas West, baron De La Warr, may also have helped sponsor Pocahontas. While John Smith later claimed that he could have presented the young woman to the English aristocracy, he never had anything like the social clout of either the Dales or the De La Warrs.
Pocahontas caused a sensation among an English upper crust that was always in search of novelty and amusement. She had an audience with the bishop of London, John King, who, in the words of Purchas, entertained her "beyond what I have seen in his great hospitality afforded to other Ladies." She and Uttamatomakkin also met King James I at Whitehall Palace and impressed him sufficiently that they were invited to attend, on January 6, 1617, his Twelfth Night masque, a formal costume ball held every year on the last night of the Christmas season. "Well placed" by the king—in other words, seated among important people—they viewed The Vision of Delight by Ben Jonson, which was performed at the ball. Although a century later Robert Beverley Jr. wrote that King James was angry with John Rolfe for presuming to marry a "princess," there is no contemporary evidence to suggest that the king was angered by the marriage and that Pocahontas was regarded as anything like royalty. One Englishman who met her referred to her only as "the Virginian woman," refusing to acknowledge her as a lady.
Even John Smith took little trouble to pay his respects to his former friend. Living in London himself, he waited several months before calling on her; in his 1624 account, he claimed that he had been too busy. When he finally made his appearance, Pocahontas was so angry with him that she retired to another room to regain her composure. Their conversation, once it began, soon degenerated into her flinging taunts at him about his shabby treatment of her father. Smith ended his account of the visit with her telling him that "your countrymen will lie much [often]."
If Smith was an accurate reporter—he wrote about the conversation seven years after it happened—then Pocahontas may have been experiencing some disillusionment with her husband's people. By the time Smith came around, she and her family had moved to Brentford, then a small village outside London. Later writers have claimed that her health was failing in the capital's smoky environs, although this is unlikely given the fact that Pocahontas had grown up in smoky Indian houses. It is more probable that her novelty among the upper classes had faded, and, absent rich sponsors, the Virginia Company was forced to transfer her to cheaper accommodations. Indirect evidence also suggests that she was in good health at that time.
Though they were already planning to return to Virginia, a week before they departed the Rolfes were awarded a large grant by the Virginia Company to start a mission. As part of such an enterprise, Pocahontas would have been expected to serve the dual roles of interpreter and housemother, which would have been a strenuous assignment for someone who was ill or dying.
After a two-month delay because of bad weather, the Rolfes and Uttamatomakkin embarked for Virginia in March 1617. Pocahontas was rumored to have regrets about leaving London, but that may have been wishful thinking on the part of some Englishmen. In the end, though, she took ill. Pocahontas, then about twenty-one years old, was taken ashore at Gravesend, down the Thames River from London, where she died. On March 21, she was interred under the chancel of St. George's Church in Gravesend, a burial place indicating that she was considered a lady. Her son, Thomas, too sick himself to travel, remained in England. (He finally sailed for Virginia in 1635, but it was thirteen years after his father's death.) Uttamatomakkin, meanwhile, returned to Virginia with John Rolfe and Samuel Argall and reported to Powhatan's brother, Opechancanough, in such negative terms about his experience that the English attempted to discredit him. The ships that carried Argall, Rolfe, and Uttamatomakkin back to Virginia also brought to the colony an epidemic of hemorrhagic dysentery which colonists called bloody flux and which Argall referred to as "a great mortality"; this epidemic may have been the cause of Pocahontas's death.
Legacy
Pocahontas is one of the iconic figures in American history. Since her death, her life story—buttressed by few and not always reliable historical sources—largely has been supplanted by myth. Except for her time in London, her contemporaries paid little attention to her, and they wrote next to nothing about her. In fact, she did not become a celebrity until the 1820s, when southerners sought a colonial heroine to compete with the story of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts and so establish Virginia (more accurately) as the earlier of the two English colonies. Toward that end, historians consulted Smith's Generall Historie, which two hundred years later was still one of the only available published accounts of early Jamestown. Written in the midst of the Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1622–1632), Smith's book emphasizes treacherous natives, a heroic Smith, and the one "good" Indian, "Princess Pocahontas." Some of what Smith writes, including the famous episode in which Pocahontas saved his life, contradicts his earlier accounts. Nevertheless, the mythical Pocahontas survives in the Walt Disney animated feature Pocahontas (1995) and the Terrence Malick film The New World (2005), both of which emphasize an unlikely romance between the young girl and Smith.
Because of her celebrity, Virginians have long sought to connect themselves with Pocahontas. After St. George's Church burned in 1727, her bones and those of all the other people buried under the church floor were reinterred in a mass grave in the churchyard. Attempts made in the 1920s to identify her bones were unsuccessful. However, many Virginians have claimed descent from Pocahontas. The Racial Integrity Act, passed by the General Assembly in 1924, allowed the state to assign all newborns to racial categories and disallowed the mixing of those categories, especially in marriage. But one exception was made: "persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white persons."
Referred to as the "Pocahontas clause," this language was added in direct response to an outcry by elite Virginians who claimed Pocahontas and John Rolfe as distant relatives and who worried that, according to the proposed law, they were not considered to be white.
Such connections, though, have always been tenuous at best. Pocahontas's son, Thomas Rolfe, never joined the Virginia colony's elite upon his return in 1635. He died in 1681, place unknown, and left behind an unknown number of children, if any. Virginia kept no consistent records of births, marriages, and deaths before 1853, and no part of a Thomas Rolfe–descended genealogy was written down until the 1820s—in other words, exactly when the Pocahontas myth was beginning to be constructed. Who is and is not actually descended from Pocahontas thus remains both cloudy and controversial.
Time Line
December 1607 - Late in the month, John Smith is brought before Powhatan, the paramount chief of Tsenacomoco. He later tells of his life being saved by Pocahontas; in fact, Powhatan likely puts Smith through a mock execution in order to adopt him as a weroance, or chief.
Spring 1608 - Pocahontas travels to Jamestown as part of a delegation charged with negotiating the release of several Indian captives. The captives are released to Pocahontas, although an adult male Indian, Rawhunt, performs the actual negotiation.
October 1609 - John Smith leaves Virginia. The Jamestown colony's new leadership is less competent, and the Starving Time follows that winter.
1610 - Sometime this year, Pocahontas begins to menstruate, making her eligible to marry. Soon after, she weds an Indian warrior named Kocoum.
December 1610 - Samuel Argall is dispatched by the Virginia authorities to the Potomac River to procure maize and furs there from Iopassus (Japazaws), the weroance of Passapatanzy, a Patawomeck town.
September 1611 - Sir Thomas Dale marches against Indians farther up the James River from Jamestown and establishes a settlement on a bluff that he calls the City of Henrico, or Henricus, in honor of his patron Prince Henry.
April 1613 - Powhatan's favorite daughter, Pocahontas, is captured and held hostage by the English, bringing a truce in the First Anglo-Powhatan War. The fight goes out of Powhatan, and during his apathy over the next year, his daughter is converted by the English.
April 1613 - Samuel Argall uses his extensive knowledge of the Potomac River–northern Chesapeake area and its Indian population to kidnap Pocahontas while she is with the Patawomecks—an event that ultimately helps to bring the devastating First Anglo-Powhatan War to a conclusion.
April 5, 1614 - On or about this day, Pocahontas and John Rolfe marry in a ceremony performed by Richard Bucke and assented to by Sir Thomas Dale and Powhatan, who sends one of her uncles to witness the ceremony. Powhatan also rescinds a standing order to attack the English wherever and whenever possible, ending the First Anglo-Powhatan War.
1615 - Ralph Hamor meets Powhatan at his residence in Matchcot in an attempt to arrange a marriage between a younger sister of Pocahontas and Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Dale. Powhatan expresses contempt for Dale and says a single marriage between his people and the English is sufficient guarantee of alliance.
1615–1617 - Sometime during this time, either in Virginia or in England, Thomas Rolfe is born to Rebecca (née Pocahontas) and John Rolfe.
Spring 1616 - The Virginia Company of London sponsors a voyage to England. Led by Sir Thomas Dale, other passengers include Pocahontas, her husband John Rolfe, their son Thomas, a retinue of young Indian women (some of whom will remain in England), and the priest Uttamatomakkin, a brother-in-law of Pocahontas's father Powhatan. Samuel Argall commands the ship.
September 1616 - Pocahontas and her traveling party land in Plymouth, England, and then travel overland to London. Their goal is to raise funds on behalf of the Virginia Company of London.
January 6, 1617 - Pocahontas, accompanied by the priest Uttamatomakkin, attends King James I's Twelfth Night masque, a formal costume ball held every year on the last night of the Christmas season. The two are "well placed" by the king and view The Vision of Delight by Ben Jonson, performed during the ball.
March 1617 - After two months of delay due to bad weather, Pocahontas, her husband John Rolfe, Uttamatomakkin, and the rest of their traveling party embark from England on the Virginia-bound George. Pocahontas soon takes ill, however, and is taken ashore at Gravesend, where she dies.
March 21, 1617 - Pocahontas is interred under the chancel of St. George's Church in Gravesend, England.
1624 - John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles, which emphasizes treacherous natives, a heroic Smith, and the one "good" Indian, "Princess Pocahontas," is published. Historians have since questioned its reliability.
1635 - After remaining in England upon the death of his mother, Pocahontas, Thomas Rolfe sails for Virginia.
1727 - St. George's Church in Gravesend, England, burns and the bones of Pocahontas are reinterred in a mass grave in the churchyard.
1920s - Attempts to identify Pocahontas's bones from a mass grave at Gravesend, England, are unsuccessful.
March 20, 1924 - Virginia passes the Racial Integrity Act, a law aimed at protecting whiteness on the state level. It prohibits interracial marriage, the only exception being a marriage between a white person and a person with less than one-sixteenth Indian blood.
Further Reading
Custalow, Linwood "Little Bear," and Angela L. Daniel "Silver Star." The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History. Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 2007.
LeMay, J. A. Leo. Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith? Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992.
Moore, Elizabeth Vann, and Richard Slatten. "The Descendants of Pocahontas: An Unclosed Case." In Magazine of Virginia Genealogy 23 (3): 3–16. 1985.
Rountree, Helen C. Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Virginia Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005.
Townsend, Camilla. Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004.
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Pocahontas
This essay was written by Helen C. Roundtree. "Pocahontas (d. 1617)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Ed. Brendan Wolfe. 28 Apr. 2011. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. 5 Apr. 2011
See this article in the Encyclopedia Virginia.
Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, paramount chief of an alliance of Virginia Indians in Tidewater Virginia. An iconic figure in American history, Pocahontas is largely known for saving the life of the Jamestown colonist John Smith and then romancing him—although both events are unlikely to be true. She did meet Smith several times, sometimes serving as Powhatan's silent figurehead and a symbolic liaison between the chief and the English colonists; she was not, however, a "princess" or a diplomat in any modern sense. Sometime around 1610, she married an Indian named Kocoum, and in 1613 she was captured by the English and confined at Jamestown, where she converted to Christianity and married the colonist John Rolfe. The marriage, approved by Powhatan, brought an end to the First Anglo-Powhatan War (1609–1614) and set the stage for Pocahontas's visit to London in 1616. At the request of the Virginia Company of London, she met both King James I and the bishop of London, after which she reunited briefly with Smith. Early in her return voyage to Virginia, she became ill and died at Gravesend in March 1617. In the centuries since, Pocahontas's life has slipped into myth, serving to represent Virginia's early claim to be the foundation-place of America. Many elite Virginians, meanwhile, have tenuously claimed her as a relative, even leading to a "Pocahontas clause" in the Racial Integrity Act of 1924.
Early Years
Pocahontas was one of dozens of children born to Powhatan, the paramount chief of Tsenacomoco, a political alliance of Algonquian-speaking Indians in Tidewater Virginia. Her mother's name and tribal origin were never recorded, although no English colonist ever suggested that she was not an Indian. (The increasingly European-looking portraits made of Pocahontas over time represent artistic license.) In her infancy, Pocahontas was given the secret personal name Matoaka; later, she was known as Amonute. Neither name can be translated.
Powhatan had many wives, and custom decreed that he keep a wife only until she had a child by him, after which he sent her back to her people and supported her from a distance. As a result, Pocahontas had no full siblings and many half siblings. When each child was ready to leave home and become part of a working household—probably at eight to ten years of age—he or she moved to Powhatan's capital, freeing the mother to remarry.
Late in her childhood, Pocahontas likely joined Powhatan's large, busy household, where everybody worked, even Powhatan himself. In addition to their daily jobs, members of the household labored to produce grand feasts on important occasions. Pocahontas, meanwhile, probably participated in what was traditionally women's work—farming, collecting wild foods and firewood, making utensils, and cooking and cleaning—and as a result had little contact with her father or other males during the day. In the evenings, she probably had stiff competition for her father's attention; still, by 1607 she was his favorite child. Her new name may suggest why. William Strachey, who lived at Jamestown from 1610 until 1611, translated "Pocahontas" as "little wanton." In Strachey's time, "wanton" meant not only bawdy but also cruel and undisciplined. In other words, it's possible that Pocahontas may have teased Powhatan about his age (then about sixty) and his multitude of wives, and he may have been delighted by it.
John Smith
Pocahontas's first opportunity to see an Englishman came late in December 1607, about eight months after the founding of Jamestown, when John Smith was brought to Powhatan's capital at Werowocomoco. Smith had initially been a captive, but after being vetted by the high priests, he arrived as an honored guest. In The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624), he famously wrote that he was threatened with death only to be rescued by Pocahontas, a story that subsequently became legend. However, in a more reliable account—a letter written a few months after his visit—Smith said only that he was feasted and then interviewed by Powhatan. This version of events makes sense, given how eager the Indian leadership was to find out why the English had come and stayed in Virginia. The interview took place inside Powhatan's house, a space large enough to accommodate only a few dozen people at most. In fact, Pocahontas probably was not even there; being then a young girl of perhaps eleven, she was needed to help with food preparation and washing up afterward.
In the spring of 1608, Pocahontas traveled to Jamestown as part of a delegation charged with negotiating the release of several Indian captives. Sent as a silent reminder of Powhatan's trust in Smith, she was accompanied by several fully armed adult men, one of whom, Rawhunt, did all the talking. The captives were released—although to Pocahontas rather than Rawhunt, presumably because she served as a symbol of Powhatan. In his 1624 account, Smith hints that Pocahontas, acting as a diplomat, led the party, but earlier eyewitness accounts say no such thing. Even the daughter of a powerful chief like Powhatan would have left military and diplomatic matters to her male relatives. This was especially true for Pocahontas, who had not only uncles but also two older half brothers serving Powhatan as appointed district chiefs.
With his later accounts suggesting that Pocahontas saved him personally as well as (in some accounts) the entire Jamestown colony, Smith had a tendency to attribute to Powhatan's daughter power she was unlikely to have possessed. That tradition continues in the frequent modern-day references to her as a "princess." Pocahontas lived in a society in which the paramount chief's position was matrilineal. In other words, Powhatan's brothers, sisters, and his sisters' children were his heirs, not his own children. As such, Pocahontas was not a princess in the European sense, and next to her favored half brothers, she was relatively powerless, either to gain entry to that first feast with John Smith or later to act on behalf of the English. On most occasions when she visited Jamestown, she probably tagged along with adults, as did other young people eager to gawk at the foreigners. Smith later described Pocahontas's "wild train," or mischievous retinue, while Strachey described her goading the English boys into turning cartwheels with her around the fort.
From the autumn of 1608 onward, relations between the Jamestown colony and Powhatan became more strained, culminating in the First Anglo-Powhatan War. Powhatan moved his capital west to Orapax, on the Chickahominy River, and out of the reach of English ships. Smith departed Virginia in October 1609, and a story of Pocahontas traveling to Jamestown to ask after him is unlikely to be true; she would have been in danger of being taken as a hostage. Instead, she probably learned about Smith's departure through her father's intelligence channels.
Marriage, Capture, and Remarriage
What little is known about Pocahontas's next few years comes from William Strachey, whose interpreter, Machumps, was one of Powhatan's brothers-in-law. Through Machumps, Strachey learned that Pocahontas began menstruating sometime in 1610, soon after which she married an Indian named Kocoum, who is described by Strachey as a "private captain," or a warrior who was a commoner. There is no record of any children or of where the couple lived after the wedding.
During this time, the English began to expand their settlements beyond the Jamestown fort, including at Henricus, established on the James River in September 1611. Slowed but not stopped by Indian guerrilla attacks, the English by 1613 were sending ships to trade with the Potomac River tribes who were beginning to act beyond the control of Tsenacomoco. In April 1613, Captain Samuel Argall heard that Pocahontas was visiting Passapatanzy, a satellite town of the Patawomecks, one of his trading partners. Argall pressured the subchief, Iopassus (Japazaws), to assist him in taking her prisoner, promising an alliance against Powhatan. After conferring with his superior, Iopassus agreed, and with his wives' help, lured Pocahontas aboard Argall's ship. Argall promptly transported her to Jamestown and sent a ransom demand to her father.
Powhatan made an initial payment and then dithered for several months, during which Pocahontas remained at the English fort. According to English accounts she was treated well, although in a book published in 2007, Linwood "Little Bear" Custalow cites Powhatan oral tradition to argue that Pocahontas was raped while in the colonists' custody. Other historians have disputed that such oral tradition survived and instead argue that any mistreatment of Pocahontas would have gone against the interests of the English in their negotiations with Powhatan. A truce had been called, the Indians still far outnumbered the English, and the colonists feared retaliation.
In any event, Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Dale, with the help of Alexander Whitaker, the minister at Jamestown and Henricus, saw to it that she was trained in the ways of the Anglican Church. She was baptized and given the Christian name Rebecca, at which time she also revealed her secret name, Matoaka. By the time the English forced the issue of ransom payment in March 1614, she and John Rolfe apparently had fallen in love. A twenty-eight-year-old widower from a family in the English gentry, Rolfe had come to Virginia, with Dale and Strachey, in 1610 and over a dozen years made his fortune in tobacco. Dale assented to their marriage—as did Powhatan, who sent one of Pocahontas's uncles as a witness—and on or about April 5, 1614, the minister Richard Bucke performed it.
There is no record of where Pocahontas and Rolfe were married or where they lived after the wedding, although Rolfe owned land around Smith Fort, across the river from Jamestown. A son, Thomas, was born sometime later. Because the first recorded mention of him is on the occasion of his mother's death, the date and place of his birth are unknown; he could have been born on either side of the Atlantic any time between 1615 and 1617. As for Pocahontas's first marriage, to Kocoum, by Powhatan custom it ended when she was captured. Powhatan, meanwhile, called a halt to his ongoing war with the English. It is unlikely that Pocahontas negotiated the peace, as some writers have claimed, nor would she have been needed as an interpreter by then. Instead, she served as a figurehead—a symbol of peaceful relations and a Christianized "savage"—and in 1616 the Virginia Company of London paid her passage to England.
London
In an effort to raise funds on behalf of the Virginia Company, Rebecca Rolfe, as Pocahontas was now known, sailed to England in the spring of 1616 with her husband John Rolfe; Deputy Governor Dale; a retinue of young Indian women, some of whom would remain in England; and the priest Uttamatomakkin, a brother-in-law of Powhatan sent by the paramount chief as an observer. In particular, Uttamatomakkin was tasked with finding John Smith, meeting the English king, viewing the English god, and conducting a census of both the Englishmen and their trees. (An earlier Indian visitor, who saw only London and the Thames River, had mistakenly reported that there were next to no trees in England, explaining why the English sought timber in Virginia.) Uttamatomakkin would accomplish the first two objectives but fail with the rest, and his encounters with evangelistic clergymen such as Reverend Samuel Purchas would turn his sympathies forever against the English.
After landing in Plymouth in September 1616, the party traveled overland to London, so Pocahontas saw a good deal of southern England. Once in London, she was lodged and clothed at the Virginia Company's expense and an engraving was made of her by Simon van de Passe that was intended for circulation by the company in its fund-raising efforts. Pocahontas also was introduced into English society, presumably by the lieutenant governor and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Dale, a distant cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth. The wife of Virginia's governor, Thomas West, baron De La Warr, may also have helped sponsor Pocahontas. While John Smith later claimed that he could have presented the young woman to the English aristocracy, he never had anything like the social clout of either the Dales or the De La Warrs.
Pocahontas caused a sensation among an English upper crust that was always in search of novelty and amusement. She had an audience with the bishop of London, John King, who, in the words of Purchas, entertained her "beyond what I have seen in his great hospitality afforded to other Ladies." She and Uttamatomakkin also met King James I at Whitehall Palace and impressed him sufficiently that they were invited to attend, on January 6, 1617, his Twelfth Night masque, a formal costume ball held every year on the last night of the Christmas season. "Well placed" by the king—in other words, seated among important people—they viewed The Vision of Delight by Ben Jonson, which was performed at the ball. Although a century later Robert Beverley Jr. wrote that King James was angry with John Rolfe for presuming to marry a "princess," there is no contemporary evidence to suggest that the king was angered by the marriage and that Pocahontas was regarded as anything like royalty. One Englishman who met her referred to her only as "the Virginian woman," refusing to acknowledge her as a lady.
Even John Smith took little trouble to pay his respects to his former friend. Living in London himself, he waited several months before calling on her; in his 1624 account, he claimed that he had been too busy. When he finally made his appearance, Pocahontas was so angry with him that she retired to another room to regain her composure. Their conversation, once it began, soon degenerated into her flinging taunts at him about his shabby treatment of her father. Smith ended his account of the visit with her telling him that "your countrymen will lie much [often]."
If Smith was an accurate reporter—he wrote about the conversation seven years after it happened—then Pocahontas may have been experiencing some disillusionment with her husband's people. By the time Smith came around, she and her family had moved to Brentford, then a small village outside London. Later writers have claimed that her health was failing in the capital's smoky environs, although this is unlikely given the fact that Pocahontas had grown up in smoky Indian houses. It is more probable that her novelty among the upper classes had faded, and, absent rich sponsors, the Virginia Company was forced to transfer her to cheaper accommodations. Indirect evidence also suggests that she was in good health at that time.
Though they were already planning to return to Virginia, a week before they departed the Rolfes were awarded a large grant by the Virginia Company to start a mission. As part of such an enterprise, Pocahontas would have been expected to serve the dual roles of interpreter and housemother, which would have been a strenuous assignment for someone who was ill or dying.
After a two-month delay because of bad weather, the Rolfes and Uttamatomakkin embarked for Virginia in March 1617. Pocahontas was rumored to have regrets about leaving London, but that may have been wishful thinking on the part of some Englishmen. In the end, though, she took ill. Pocahontas, then about twenty-one years old, was taken ashore at Gravesend, down the Thames River from London, where she died. On March 21, she was interred under the chancel of St. George's Church in Gravesend, a burial place indicating that she was considered a lady. Her son, Thomas, too sick himself to travel, remained in England. (He finally sailed for Virginia in 1635, but it was thirteen years after his father's death.) Uttamatomakkin, meanwhile, returned to Virginia with John Rolfe and Samuel Argall and reported to Powhatan's brother, Opechancanough, in such negative terms about his experience that the English attempted to discredit him. The ships that carried Argall, Rolfe, and Uttamatomakkin back to Virginia also brought to the colony an epidemic of hemorrhagic dysentery which colonists called bloody flux and which Argall referred to as "a great mortality"; this epidemic may have been the cause of Pocahontas's death.
Legacy
Pocahontas is one of the iconic figures in American history. Since her death, her life story—buttressed by few and not always reliable historical sources—largely has been supplanted by myth. Except for her time in London, her contemporaries paid little attention to her, and they wrote next to nothing about her. In fact, she did not become a celebrity until the 1820s, when southerners sought a colonial heroine to compete with the story of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts and so establish Virginia (more accurately) as the earlier of the two English colonies. Toward that end, historians consulted Smith's Generall Historie, which two hundred years later was still one of the only available published accounts of early Jamestown. Written in the midst of the Second Anglo-Powhatan War (1622–1632), Smith's book emphasizes treacherous natives, a heroic Smith, and the one "good" Indian, "Princess Pocahontas." Some of what Smith writes, including the famous episode in which Pocahontas saved his life, contradicts his earlier accounts. Nevertheless, the mythical Pocahontas survives in the Walt Disney animated feature Pocahontas (1995) and the Terrence Malick film The New World (2005), both of which emphasize an unlikely romance between the young girl and Smith.
Because of her celebrity, Virginians have long sought to connect themselves with Pocahontas. After St. George's Church burned in 1727, her bones and those of all the other people buried under the church floor were reinterred in a mass grave in the churchyard. Attempts made in the 1920s to identify her bones were unsuccessful. However, many Virginians have claimed descent from Pocahontas. The Racial Integrity Act, passed by the General Assembly in 1924, allowed the state to assign all newborns to racial categories and disallowed the mixing of those categories, especially in marriage. But one exception was made: "persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white persons."
Referred to as the "Pocahontas clause," this language was added in direct response to an outcry by elite Virginians who claimed Pocahontas and John Rolfe as distant relatives and who worried that, according to the proposed law, they were not considered to be white.
Such connections, though, have always been tenuous at best. Pocahontas's son, Thomas Rolfe, never joined the Virginia colony's elite upon his return in 1635. He died in 1681, place unknown, and left behind an unknown number of children, if any. Virginia kept no consistent records of births, marriages, and deaths before 1853, and no part of a Thomas Rolfe–descended genealogy was written down until the 1820s—in other words, exactly when the Pocahontas myth was beginning to be constructed. Who is and is not actually descended from Pocahontas thus remains both cloudy and controversial.
Time Line
December 1607 - Late in the month, John Smith is brought before Powhatan, the paramount chief of Tsenacomoco. He later tells of his life being saved by Pocahontas; in fact, Powhatan likely puts Smith through a mock execution in order to adopt him as a weroance, or chief.
Spring 1608 - Pocahontas travels to Jamestown as part of a delegation charged with negotiating the release of several Indian captives. The captives are released to Pocahontas, although an adult male Indian, Rawhunt, performs the actual negotiation.
October 1609 - John Smith leaves Virginia. The Jamestown colony's new leadership is less competent, and the Starving Time follows that winter.
1610 - Sometime this year, Pocahontas begins to menstruate, making her eligible to marry. Soon after, she weds an Indian warrior named Kocoum.
December 1610 - Samuel Argall is dispatched by the Virginia authorities to the Potomac River to procure maize and furs there from Iopassus (Japazaws), the weroance of Passapatanzy, a Patawomeck town.
September 1611 - Sir Thomas Dale marches against Indians farther up the James River from Jamestown and establishes a settlement on a bluff that he calls the City of Henrico, or Henricus, in honor of his patron Prince Henry.
April 1613 - Powhatan's favorite daughter, Pocahontas, is captured and held hostage by the English, bringing a truce in the First Anglo-Powhatan War. The fight goes out of Powhatan, and during his apathy over the next year, his daughter is converted by the English.
April 1613 - Samuel Argall uses his extensive knowledge of the Potomac River–northern Chesapeake area and its Indian population to kidnap Pocahontas while she is with the Patawomecks—an event that ultimately helps to bring the devastating First Anglo-Powhatan War to a conclusion.
April 5, 1614 - On or about this day, Pocahontas and John Rolfe marry in a ceremony performed by Richard Bucke and assented to by Sir Thomas Dale and Powhatan, who sends one of her uncles to witness the ceremony. Powhatan also rescinds a standing order to attack the English wherever and whenever possible, ending the First Anglo-Powhatan War.
1615 - Ralph Hamor meets Powhatan at his residence in Matchcot in an attempt to arrange a marriage between a younger sister of Pocahontas and Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Dale. Powhatan expresses contempt for Dale and says a single marriage between his people and the English is sufficient guarantee of alliance.
1615–1617 - Sometime during this time, either in Virginia or in England, Thomas Rolfe is born to Rebecca (née Pocahontas) and John Rolfe.
Spring 1616 - The Virginia Company of London sponsors a voyage to England. Led by Sir Thomas Dale, other passengers include Pocahontas, her husband John Rolfe, their son Thomas, a retinue of young Indian women (some of whom will remain in England), and the priest Uttamatomakkin, a brother-in-law of Pocahontas's father Powhatan. Samuel Argall commands the ship.
September 1616 - Pocahontas and her traveling party land in Plymouth, England, and then travel overland to London. Their goal is to raise funds on behalf of the Virginia Company of London.
January 6, 1617 - Pocahontas, accompanied by the priest Uttamatomakkin, attends King James I's Twelfth Night masque, a formal costume ball held every year on the last night of the Christmas season. The two are "well placed" by the king and view The Vision of Delight by Ben Jonson, performed during the ball.
March 1617 - After two months of delay due to bad weather, Pocahontas, her husband John Rolfe, Uttamatomakkin, and the rest of their traveling party embark from England on the Virginia-bound George. Pocahontas soon takes ill, however, and is taken ashore at Gravesend, where she dies.
March 21, 1617 - Pocahontas is interred under the chancel of St. George's Church in Gravesend, England.
1624 - John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles, which emphasizes treacherous natives, a heroic Smith, and the one "good" Indian, "Princess Pocahontas," is published. Historians have since questioned its reliability.
1635 - After remaining in England upon the death of his mother, Pocahontas, Thomas Rolfe sails for Virginia.
1727 - St. George's Church in Gravesend, England, burns and the bones of Pocahontas are reinterred in a mass grave in the churchyard.
1920s - Attempts to identify Pocahontas's bones from a mass grave at Gravesend, England, are unsuccessful.
March 20, 1924 - Virginia passes the Racial Integrity Act, a law aimed at protecting whiteness on the state level. It prohibits interracial marriage, the only exception being a marriage between a white person and a person with less than one-sixteenth Indian blood.
Further Reading
Custalow, Linwood "Little Bear," and Angela L. Daniel "Silver Star." The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History. Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 2007.
LeMay, J. A. Leo. Did Pocahontas Save Captain John Smith? Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992.
Moore, Elizabeth Vann, and Richard Slatten. "The Descendants of Pocahontas: An Unclosed Case." In Magazine of Virginia Genealogy 23 (3): 3–16. 1985.
Rountree, Helen C. Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Virginia Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005.
Townsend, Camilla. Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004.
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Monday, April 25, 2011
Chocolate & Lust in 1660s London
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Love this posting from the blog In Pursuit of History April 24, 2011 by Tom Sykes
Chocolate: provoking lust since 1662
There is no doubt that coffee was the exotic and fashionable drink of choice in last third of the Seventeenth Century, with Tea not far behind. But alongside these two was another narcotic of choice: Chocolate. In the 1660s, Coffeehouses sprung up all over the country, particularly in London, becoming hubs of political tittle tattle and acting as grease in the wheels of commerce (the venerable insurance giant Lloyds started out in just such a place), but by the late 1690s Chocolate houses were prevalent too. These were very similar to their black & frothy sister establishments, being popular social, political and gaming establishments.
Luckily for these establishments, chocolate’s reputation managed to survive the early Spanish accounts of the drink:
They grinded the nuts into a paste, and, when they used it, they dissolved it (being pouder’d) and milled it, tempering it by little and little with water in an Indian cup: and sometimes they added a little pepper; and this was their ordinary drink; which they did drink themselves, and gave to wearied travellers, as well as to the sick. This they offered to Benzonus, and when he with an abhorrency refused such a drench, they admired, and laughed at him. But certainly it was not improved to any deliciousness of tast, since he saith it was bitterish, and that it was more fit to be hogs-wash, then drink for rational men. The same may be collected from Acosta, who saith, that The chiefest use the Indians make of Cacao is in a drink, which they call Chocholate, whereof they make great account in that countrey, foolishly, and without reason: for it is loathsom to such, as are not acquainted with it, having a skum, or froth, that is very unpleasant to taste, if they be not very well conceited thereof; yet it is a drink very much esteemed amongst the Indians, wherewith they feast Noble-men as they pass thorough their country.
The ancient South Americans seemed to have something of a modern Chocolateers inclination to add in as many weird and wacky ingredients as they could. Unlike today, these had practical purposes; the additional ingredients changed the medicinal properties of the chocolate, which was an aspect that was considered highly important in the intial western adoption of the drink. That said, I’m pretty sure Hotel Chocolate do this recipe:
It is then clear, that the Indian ordinary Chocolata was made of the Cacao nut, and meal of Indian wheat, and water, and Pocholt, and now and then some Pepper called Chille, which was put in, more, or less, according to the necessity of the Patient’s stomach, or other circumstances: So that they made divers sorts of it, some hot, some cold, some temperate, and put therein much of that Chili, or Chille.
Once Europeans realised that adding sugar was the key to making it palatable, the recipes start to look familiar:
In the common Chocolata sold so cheap there is not any thing, but eight ounces of the [Cocoa] Nuts prepared, and powdered, seven ounces of Sugar, and one ounce of Spice; viz. half an ounce of Cinnamom, two drams of Iamaica-pepper, or other Pepper,and as much of Cloves, Nutmeg, and Limon-pill
It’s not surprising that chocolate became so popular as a drink once a palatable way of preparing it for English tastes had been found. Although it can’t have hurt that Chocolate’s reputation as an aphrodisiac was there from the very beginning:
And as Chocolata provokes… and becomes provocative to lust upon no other account.
As for Chocolata, how effectual it may be herein, I understand not by experience: but, since the most amorous Nations in the World drink it, it is very possible, it may conduce thereunto much.
All quotes taken from Henry Stubbe’s “The Indian nectar” (1662).
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Love this posting from the blog In Pursuit of History April 24, 2011 by Tom Sykes
Chocolate: provoking lust since 1662
There is no doubt that coffee was the exotic and fashionable drink of choice in last third of the Seventeenth Century, with Tea not far behind. But alongside these two was another narcotic of choice: Chocolate. In the 1660s, Coffeehouses sprung up all over the country, particularly in London, becoming hubs of political tittle tattle and acting as grease in the wheels of commerce (the venerable insurance giant Lloyds started out in just such a place), but by the late 1690s Chocolate houses were prevalent too. These were very similar to their black & frothy sister establishments, being popular social, political and gaming establishments.
Luckily for these establishments, chocolate’s reputation managed to survive the early Spanish accounts of the drink:
They grinded the nuts into a paste, and, when they used it, they dissolved it (being pouder’d) and milled it, tempering it by little and little with water in an Indian cup: and sometimes they added a little pepper; and this was their ordinary drink; which they did drink themselves, and gave to wearied travellers, as well as to the sick. This they offered to Benzonus, and when he with an abhorrency refused such a drench, they admired, and laughed at him. But certainly it was not improved to any deliciousness of tast, since he saith it was bitterish, and that it was more fit to be hogs-wash, then drink for rational men. The same may be collected from Acosta, who saith, that The chiefest use the Indians make of Cacao is in a drink, which they call Chocholate, whereof they make great account in that countrey, foolishly, and without reason: for it is loathsom to such, as are not acquainted with it, having a skum, or froth, that is very unpleasant to taste, if they be not very well conceited thereof; yet it is a drink very much esteemed amongst the Indians, wherewith they feast Noble-men as they pass thorough their country.
The ancient South Americans seemed to have something of a modern Chocolateers inclination to add in as many weird and wacky ingredients as they could. Unlike today, these had practical purposes; the additional ingredients changed the medicinal properties of the chocolate, which was an aspect that was considered highly important in the intial western adoption of the drink. That said, I’m pretty sure Hotel Chocolate do this recipe:
It is then clear, that the Indian ordinary Chocolata was made of the Cacao nut, and meal of Indian wheat, and water, and Pocholt, and now and then some Pepper called Chille, which was put in, more, or less, according to the necessity of the Patient’s stomach, or other circumstances: So that they made divers sorts of it, some hot, some cold, some temperate, and put therein much of that Chili, or Chille.
Once Europeans realised that adding sugar was the key to making it palatable, the recipes start to look familiar:
In the common Chocolata sold so cheap there is not any thing, but eight ounces of the [Cocoa] Nuts prepared, and powdered, seven ounces of Sugar, and one ounce of Spice; viz. half an ounce of Cinnamom, two drams of Iamaica-pepper, or other Pepper,and as much of Cloves, Nutmeg, and Limon-pill
It’s not surprising that chocolate became so popular as a drink once a palatable way of preparing it for English tastes had been found. Although it can’t have hurt that Chocolate’s reputation as an aphrodisiac was there from the very beginning:
And as Chocolata provokes… and becomes provocative to lust upon no other account.
As for Chocolata, how effectual it may be herein, I understand not by experience: but, since the most amorous Nations in the World drink it, it is very possible, it may conduce thereunto much.
All quotes taken from Henry Stubbe’s “The Indian nectar” (1662).
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Sunday, April 24, 2011
Margaret Winthrop c 1591-1647 Wife of Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop
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Margaret Winthrop (c. 1591-1647), wife of John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was the 4th child and 2nd daughter of Sir John and Lady Anne (Egerton) Tyndal of Great Maplestead, Esses, England. Her father was one of the masters of chancery; her mother was the daughter of Thomas Egerton of Suffolk and the widow of William Deane of Deaneshall.
Nothing is known of Margaret Tyndal’s early life and education. She was married to John Winthrop on Apr. 29, 1618, and moved to his father’s home, Groton Manor in Suffolk. She was his third wife. At the time of her marriage she was 27 years old, 4 years younger than her husband.
Adam Winthrop, father of John, was still lord of the manor, and his unmarried daughter Lucy was still a member of the household. As the new wife and mistress of the manor, Margaret Winthrop was charged with the care of her husband’s 4 children by his 2 former marriages, ranging in age from 12 to 3. Within 3 years she had 2 children of her own, Stephen and Adam.
In addition to her childrearing responsibilities, her household duties were heavy. Visitors were numerous, markets remote, and roads suitable for horseback travel only; the manor had to be sufficient unto itself for all its varied needs. Overseeing the operation of such a household was the best preparation she could have for the difficult, pioneer life in New England.
During many months of the 12 years before 1630, when John Winthrop sailed for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, his position as attorney at the Court of Wards and Liveries kept him at his chambers in London. His visits to Groton Manor were brief and infrequent, especially after plans for emigration were under way.
It was during this long period of enforced separation that the letters between them were written. Both husband and wife put their love to God first, love of husband and wife second.
In Margaret Winthrop’s words “ I have many reasons to make me love thee, whereof I will name two, first because thou lovest God, and secondly because that thou lovest me.” Religious feeling exalted their mutual love and dignified it.
After her husband had left England, Margaret Winthrop remained at Groton for more than a year, until he could make suitable preparation for her coming. Only a few brief notes are preserved from this period.
She arrived in Boston Nov. 4, 1631, in the ship Lyon, which brought a cargo of much-needed supplies for the winter. Her baby daughter, Anne, had died on the voyage.
“The like joy and manifestations of love had never been seen in New England,” John Winthrop wrote in his Journal. One week later, on Nov. 11, “We kept a day of thanksgiving at Boston.”
Margaret Winthrop had 16 years of pioneer experience as the 1st lade of the colony during her husband’s long service as governor and assistant. She revealed some of her feelings in her letters from the new colony.
In a letter, dated “Sad Boston, 1637,” while the ANNE HUTCHINSON disturbance was at its height, she confessed to being “unfit for any thinge, wonderinge what the Lord meanes by all these troubles among us.” She found in herself a “fierce spirit, unwilling to submit to the will of God,” and yet in the next sentence could say, "God’s will be done." She did not know how to say otherwise.
She died after one day’s illness in midsummer 1647, apparently of influenza. In her husband’s words, she “left this world for better, being about fifty-six years of age: a woman of singular virtue, prudence, modesty and piety, and especially beloved and honoured of all the country.” There is no portrait of that “lovely countenance” that he had so “much delighted in and beheld with so great contente.” Four of her 8 children survived her, Stephen, Adam, Deane, and Samuel.
A Letter From John Winthrop to his wife in 1620
July 12. 1620.
IV.
JOHN WINTHROP TO HIS WIFE.
To my veryc lovinge wife Mrs. Winthrop
at Groton in Suffolk.
My TRUELY BELOVED & DEARE WIFE, —
I salute thee heartylye, giving thankes to God who bestowed thee upon me, and hath continued thee unto me, the chiefest of all comforts under the hope of Salvation, which hope cannot be valued: I pray God that these earthly blessings of mariage, healthe, friendship, etc, may increase our estimation of our better and onely ever duringe happinesse in heaven, and may quicken up our appetite thereunto accordinge to the worth thereof: O my sweet wife, let us rather hearken to the advise of our lovinge Lord who calles upon us first to seeke the kingdom of God, and tells us that one thinge is needfull, and so as without it the gaine of the whole world is nothinge: rather then to looke at the frothye wisdome of this worlde and the foolishnesse of such examples as propounde outwarde prosperitye for true felicitye.— God keepe us that we never swallowe this baite of Satan: but let us looke unto the worde of God and cleave fast unto it, and so shall we be safe.
I know you have heard before this of my coming to London: I thank God we had a prosperous journye and found all well where we came: I doubt not but thy desire wilbe now to heare of my returne, which (to deale truely with thee) I fear will not be untill the middest of next weeke: for the Parl' is putt off for a week; and I have many friends to visit in a short tyme: but my heart is allready with thee and thy little lambes, so as I will hasten home with what convenient speed I may: In the meane tyme, I will not be unmindfull of you all: but commend you dayly to the blessinge and protection of our heavenly Father.
Remember my dutye to my father and mother, my love to Mr. Sands and all the rest of my true freinds that shall ask of me, and my blessing to our Children; and so giving thee commission to conceive more of my Love then I can write, I rest
Thy faythfull husbande
John Winthrop.
This posting based on information from Notable American Women edited by Edward T James, Janet Wilson James, Paul S Boyer, The Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1971
Also see Some old Puritan love-letters: John and Margaret Winthrop, 1618-1638. Edited by Joseph Hopkins Twichell. Dodd, Mead and company, 1894.
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Margaret Winthrop (c. 1591-1647), wife of John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was the 4th child and 2nd daughter of Sir John and Lady Anne (Egerton) Tyndal of Great Maplestead, Esses, England. Her father was one of the masters of chancery; her mother was the daughter of Thomas Egerton of Suffolk and the widow of William Deane of Deaneshall.
Nothing is known of Margaret Tyndal’s early life and education. She was married to John Winthrop on Apr. 29, 1618, and moved to his father’s home, Groton Manor in Suffolk. She was his third wife. At the time of her marriage she was 27 years old, 4 years younger than her husband.
Adam Winthrop, father of John, was still lord of the manor, and his unmarried daughter Lucy was still a member of the household. As the new wife and mistress of the manor, Margaret Winthrop was charged with the care of her husband’s 4 children by his 2 former marriages, ranging in age from 12 to 3. Within 3 years she had 2 children of her own, Stephen and Adam.
In addition to her childrearing responsibilities, her household duties were heavy. Visitors were numerous, markets remote, and roads suitable for horseback travel only; the manor had to be sufficient unto itself for all its varied needs. Overseeing the operation of such a household was the best preparation she could have for the difficult, pioneer life in New England.
During many months of the 12 years before 1630, when John Winthrop sailed for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, his position as attorney at the Court of Wards and Liveries kept him at his chambers in London. His visits to Groton Manor were brief and infrequent, especially after plans for emigration were under way.
It was during this long period of enforced separation that the letters between them were written. Both husband and wife put their love to God first, love of husband and wife second.
In Margaret Winthrop’s words “ I have many reasons to make me love thee, whereof I will name two, first because thou lovest God, and secondly because that thou lovest me.” Religious feeling exalted their mutual love and dignified it.
After her husband had left England, Margaret Winthrop remained at Groton for more than a year, until he could make suitable preparation for her coming. Only a few brief notes are preserved from this period.
She arrived in Boston Nov. 4, 1631, in the ship Lyon, which brought a cargo of much-needed supplies for the winter. Her baby daughter, Anne, had died on the voyage.
“The like joy and manifestations of love had never been seen in New England,” John Winthrop wrote in his Journal. One week later, on Nov. 11, “We kept a day of thanksgiving at Boston.”
Margaret Winthrop had 16 years of pioneer experience as the 1st lade of the colony during her husband’s long service as governor and assistant. She revealed some of her feelings in her letters from the new colony.
In a letter, dated “Sad Boston, 1637,” while the ANNE HUTCHINSON disturbance was at its height, she confessed to being “unfit for any thinge, wonderinge what the Lord meanes by all these troubles among us.” She found in herself a “fierce spirit, unwilling to submit to the will of God,” and yet in the next sentence could say, "God’s will be done." She did not know how to say otherwise.
She died after one day’s illness in midsummer 1647, apparently of influenza. In her husband’s words, she “left this world for better, being about fifty-six years of age: a woman of singular virtue, prudence, modesty and piety, and especially beloved and honoured of all the country.” There is no portrait of that “lovely countenance” that he had so “much delighted in and beheld with so great contente.” Four of her 8 children survived her, Stephen, Adam, Deane, and Samuel.
A Letter From John Winthrop to his wife in 1620
July 12. 1620.
IV.
JOHN WINTHROP TO HIS WIFE.
To my veryc lovinge wife Mrs. Winthrop
at Groton in Suffolk.
My TRUELY BELOVED & DEARE WIFE, —
I salute thee heartylye, giving thankes to God who bestowed thee upon me, and hath continued thee unto me, the chiefest of all comforts under the hope of Salvation, which hope cannot be valued: I pray God that these earthly blessings of mariage, healthe, friendship, etc, may increase our estimation of our better and onely ever duringe happinesse in heaven, and may quicken up our appetite thereunto accordinge to the worth thereof: O my sweet wife, let us rather hearken to the advise of our lovinge Lord who calles upon us first to seeke the kingdom of God, and tells us that one thinge is needfull, and so as without it the gaine of the whole world is nothinge: rather then to looke at the frothye wisdome of this worlde and the foolishnesse of such examples as propounde outwarde prosperitye for true felicitye.— God keepe us that we never swallowe this baite of Satan: but let us looke unto the worde of God and cleave fast unto it, and so shall we be safe.
I know you have heard before this of my coming to London: I thank God we had a prosperous journye and found all well where we came: I doubt not but thy desire wilbe now to heare of my returne, which (to deale truely with thee) I fear will not be untill the middest of next weeke: for the Parl' is putt off for a week; and I have many friends to visit in a short tyme: but my heart is allready with thee and thy little lambes, so as I will hasten home with what convenient speed I may: In the meane tyme, I will not be unmindfull of you all: but commend you dayly to the blessinge and protection of our heavenly Father.
Remember my dutye to my father and mother, my love to Mr. Sands and all the rest of my true freinds that shall ask of me, and my blessing to our Children; and so giving thee commission to conceive more of my Love then I can write, I rest
Thy faythfull husbande
John Winthrop.
This posting based on information from Notable American Women edited by Edward T James, Janet Wilson James, Paul S Boyer, The Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1971
Also see Some old Puritan love-letters: John and Margaret Winthrop, 1618-1638. Edited by Joseph Hopkins Twichell. Dodd, Mead and company, 1894.
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Saturday, April 23, 2011
Queen Ann Stuart 1665-1714 - Ruler of Early Virginia Colony
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"Anne Stuart was an unlikely person to become queen of England. She was born on February 6, 1665 to the Duke and Duchess of York and was their second daughter out of three children. Shortly before her birth, her uncle, King Charles II, had married and seemed destined to have a large family after fathering several illegitimate children. But he had no more children. As Anne grew older she would be plagued by numerous health problems, but she survived to adulthood. She only received a limited education, yet Anne would reign during a critically important period in her nation's history. During her reign she would oversee two major events in English history, one domestic and one foreign. The first being the Act of Union that united England and Scotland. The second was a major international war, the War of Spanish Succession. Best remembered as the last of the Stuart dynasty Anne had no heirs. The events of her reign would pave the way for Britain to become an international world power.
"Although born into royalty, her education was similar to that of other aristocratic girls: languages and music. Her knowledge of history was limited and she received no instruction in civil law or military matters that most male monarchs were expected to have. She was also a sickly child, and may have suffered from the blood disease porphyria, as well as having poor vision and a serious case of smallpox at the age of twelve. Poor health would plague Anne her entire life, probably contributing to her many miscarriages.
"Anne grew up in an atmosphere of controversy. Her father James, the Duke of York, and both her mother and later her stepmother were Roman Catholic. They would have preferred to raise Anne and Mary (their only children to survive early childhood) as Roman Catholics. Nevertheless, prominent Protestants, such as Henry Compton, later bishop of London, interceded and ensured the girls would not only be required to attend Protestant services but that they also receive Protestant religious instruction.
"Anne's life dramatically changed when the Lord Treasurer and Earl of Danby, in an attempt to strengthen his influence with King Charles II, arranged the marriage of Anne's sister, Mary, to William of Orange. Their father, the Duke of York, had wanted to wed Mary to the heir to the French throne, a Roman Catholic. Danby persuaded by the King to allow the marriage to William, a Dutch Protestant and an enemy of France, thus straining the close relationship between Anne and Mary. Anne married Prince George of Denmark. This was an arrangement Anne's father negotiated in secret with sponsorship by King Louis XIV of France, who hoped for a Anglo-Danish alliance against William of Orange and the Dutch. No such alliance would ever materialize.
"Her husband did not affect Anne's position as he remained politically weak and inactive, suffering from a drinking problem. Prince George's influence in matters of state would remain small throughout their marriage. The relationship he had with Anne was a close one and she loved him deeply, however, their marriage was saddened by Anne's twelve miscarriages and the fact that none of their other five children reached adulthood.
"When King Charles II died in 1686, Anne's father became King James II. His Roman Catholicism and his desire to rule without Parliament's input caused Parliament to call on William of Orange and Mary to take the throne, in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. This revolution created a constitutional, limited monarchy in England, where elected representatives, not a dynastic monarch, truly ruled. Interestingly, later Queen Anne became the last British monarch to veto an act of Parliament. Anne supported the revolution and opposed her father.
"Mary allowed her husband to rule, and neither got along with Anne during their reign. But since they never had children, after Mary died, followed by William, in 1702, the throne then passed to Anne. The Settlement Act of 1701 paved the way for Anne's reign. It stated that if Anne died without children the throne would pass to the German Hanoverians. The only challenge was her half brother James, a Roman Catholic living in exile in France. Thus Anne ascended as the last Stuart monarch, and was the first married queen to rule England.
"Anne's reign would be characterized by the attempts of others to manipulate her. Most significantly among these individuals was Sarah Churchill. A friend of Anne's since childhood, Anne leaned heavily on her for companionship. After Anne's marriage she named Sarah to the prestigious position of Lady of the Bedchamber. After Anne became queen, she named Sarah to other prominent posts including Keeper of the Privy Purse, Mistress of the Robes and Groom of the Stole. Their relationship for many years was a close one with Anne showering Sarah with large allowances and gifts, such as the huge and extravagant Blenheim estate. The estate was given to the Churchill's as a reward for John Churchill's important military victory in the War of Spanish Succession. Anne often seemed dependent on Sarah, at least for emotional support. Anne would constantly write to Sarah when Sarah was away from the court attending to her family. Anne's letters made it seem like she could not get along without Sarah. They would use playful pseudonyms when writing to each other: Anne being Mrs. Morley and Sarah Mrs. Freeman. Their relationship would eventually deteriorate due to Sarah's nagging and their many petty arguments. Sarah would fall out of favor and would be replaced as Anne's favorite by a distant cousin, Abigail Masham.
"The end of Anne's friendship with Sarah signaled a change in political influences as well. Although Anne had always been a strong Tory throughout her reign she had vigorously supported the War of Spanish Succession, a Whig war. Sarah Churchill was a Whig and her husband John, though a Tory, was the leading English general in the conflict. Because of the Churchill's influence, Anne had always been inclined to support the war which was the most important event in foreign affairs during Anne's reign. However, when Abigail Masham a Tory replaced Sarah as Anne's close friend it signaled a shift in politics. Some historians believe Anne manipulated her ministers to enact the policies she wanted while others see her as a monarch manipulated by her ministers. Whatever the case, when the Tories came into power they negotiated an end to the war.
"The Settlement Act of 1701 had angered Scotland where the Stuart dynasty had originated. The Scots threatened to bring back James, Anne's Roman Catholic half-brother and pretender to the throne, to rule. To head off a revolt and unite support for the crown, Anne pushed for the Act of Union which would unite England and Scotland. The Act of Union was finally accepted in 1707.
"In the last couple years of her life Anne became very ill. She was often bedridden and attended to by doctors. These doctors used many techniques to try to cure Anne including bleeding her and applying hot irons. These crude medicinal techniques probably did more harm than good, and Anne died on July 31st 1714."
From King's College website of Brian A. Pavlac on Women's History.
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"Anne Stuart was an unlikely person to become queen of England. She was born on February 6, 1665 to the Duke and Duchess of York and was their second daughter out of three children. Shortly before her birth, her uncle, King Charles II, had married and seemed destined to have a large family after fathering several illegitimate children. But he had no more children. As Anne grew older she would be plagued by numerous health problems, but she survived to adulthood. She only received a limited education, yet Anne would reign during a critically important period in her nation's history. During her reign she would oversee two major events in English history, one domestic and one foreign. The first being the Act of Union that united England and Scotland. The second was a major international war, the War of Spanish Succession. Best remembered as the last of the Stuart dynasty Anne had no heirs. The events of her reign would pave the way for Britain to become an international world power.
"Although born into royalty, her education was similar to that of other aristocratic girls: languages and music. Her knowledge of history was limited and she received no instruction in civil law or military matters that most male monarchs were expected to have. She was also a sickly child, and may have suffered from the blood disease porphyria, as well as having poor vision and a serious case of smallpox at the age of twelve. Poor health would plague Anne her entire life, probably contributing to her many miscarriages.
"Anne grew up in an atmosphere of controversy. Her father James, the Duke of York, and both her mother and later her stepmother were Roman Catholic. They would have preferred to raise Anne and Mary (their only children to survive early childhood) as Roman Catholics. Nevertheless, prominent Protestants, such as Henry Compton, later bishop of London, interceded and ensured the girls would not only be required to attend Protestant services but that they also receive Protestant religious instruction.
"Anne's life dramatically changed when the Lord Treasurer and Earl of Danby, in an attempt to strengthen his influence with King Charles II, arranged the marriage of Anne's sister, Mary, to William of Orange. Their father, the Duke of York, had wanted to wed Mary to the heir to the French throne, a Roman Catholic. Danby persuaded by the King to allow the marriage to William, a Dutch Protestant and an enemy of France, thus straining the close relationship between Anne and Mary. Anne married Prince George of Denmark. This was an arrangement Anne's father negotiated in secret with sponsorship by King Louis XIV of France, who hoped for a Anglo-Danish alliance against William of Orange and the Dutch. No such alliance would ever materialize.
"Her husband did not affect Anne's position as he remained politically weak and inactive, suffering from a drinking problem. Prince George's influence in matters of state would remain small throughout their marriage. The relationship he had with Anne was a close one and she loved him deeply, however, their marriage was saddened by Anne's twelve miscarriages and the fact that none of their other five children reached adulthood.
"When King Charles II died in 1686, Anne's father became King James II. His Roman Catholicism and his desire to rule without Parliament's input caused Parliament to call on William of Orange and Mary to take the throne, in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. This revolution created a constitutional, limited monarchy in England, where elected representatives, not a dynastic monarch, truly ruled. Interestingly, later Queen Anne became the last British monarch to veto an act of Parliament. Anne supported the revolution and opposed her father.
"Mary allowed her husband to rule, and neither got along with Anne during their reign. But since they never had children, after Mary died, followed by William, in 1702, the throne then passed to Anne. The Settlement Act of 1701 paved the way for Anne's reign. It stated that if Anne died without children the throne would pass to the German Hanoverians. The only challenge was her half brother James, a Roman Catholic living in exile in France. Thus Anne ascended as the last Stuart monarch, and was the first married queen to rule England.
"Anne's reign would be characterized by the attempts of others to manipulate her. Most significantly among these individuals was Sarah Churchill. A friend of Anne's since childhood, Anne leaned heavily on her for companionship. After Anne's marriage she named Sarah to the prestigious position of Lady of the Bedchamber. After Anne became queen, she named Sarah to other prominent posts including Keeper of the Privy Purse, Mistress of the Robes and Groom of the Stole. Their relationship for many years was a close one with Anne showering Sarah with large allowances and gifts, such as the huge and extravagant Blenheim estate. The estate was given to the Churchill's as a reward for John Churchill's important military victory in the War of Spanish Succession. Anne often seemed dependent on Sarah, at least for emotional support. Anne would constantly write to Sarah when Sarah was away from the court attending to her family. Anne's letters made it seem like she could not get along without Sarah. They would use playful pseudonyms when writing to each other: Anne being Mrs. Morley and Sarah Mrs. Freeman. Their relationship would eventually deteriorate due to Sarah's nagging and their many petty arguments. Sarah would fall out of favor and would be replaced as Anne's favorite by a distant cousin, Abigail Masham.
"The end of Anne's friendship with Sarah signaled a change in political influences as well. Although Anne had always been a strong Tory throughout her reign she had vigorously supported the War of Spanish Succession, a Whig war. Sarah Churchill was a Whig and her husband John, though a Tory, was the leading English general in the conflict. Because of the Churchill's influence, Anne had always been inclined to support the war which was the most important event in foreign affairs during Anne's reign. However, when Abigail Masham a Tory replaced Sarah as Anne's close friend it signaled a shift in politics. Some historians believe Anne manipulated her ministers to enact the policies she wanted while others see her as a monarch manipulated by her ministers. Whatever the case, when the Tories came into power they negotiated an end to the war.
"The Settlement Act of 1701 had angered Scotland where the Stuart dynasty had originated. The Scots threatened to bring back James, Anne's Roman Catholic half-brother and pretender to the throne, to rule. To head off a revolt and unite support for the crown, Anne pushed for the Act of Union which would unite England and Scotland. The Act of Union was finally accepted in 1707.
"In the last couple years of her life Anne became very ill. She was often bedridden and attended to by doctors. These doctors used many techniques to try to cure Anne including bleeding her and applying hot irons. These crude medicinal techniques probably did more harm than good, and Anne died on July 31st 1714."
From King's College website of Brian A. Pavlac on Women's History.
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On This Day in History - Coronation of England's Queen Anne Stuart 1665-1714
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Article from History Today by Richard Cavendish describing the coronation of Queen Anne on April 23rd, 1702.
"The last of the Stuarts on the English throne, Anne was thirty-seven when she succeeded her brother-in-law William III on March 8th, 1702. She was devoted to her husband, Prince George of Denmark, and he to her, but of their five children by her continual pregnancies, none had survived. Shy, plain, red-faced and dumpy, growing increasingly stout and a martyr to rheumatism, she was not considered intelligent and at this point she was under the thumb of her old friend from school days, Sarah Jennings, the brilliant and strong-minded wife of John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough.
"Marlborough had made efficient preparations for the succession with his two principal allies, Sidney Godolphin and Robert Harley. An accession council was held immediately at St James’s Palace in London, at which the new queen promised to continue the late king’s policies. Members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons came to kiss her hand and were graciously received as the heralds proclaimed her in the streets. The principal members of the government were confirmed in office for a month at least. On March 11th, crowned and dressed in red velvet, Anne delivered her first formal speech to Parliament. ‘As I know my own heart to be entirely English,’ she said, ‘I can very sincerely assure you that there is not anything you can expect or desire from me which I shall not be ready to do for the happiness and prosperity of England.’ She had a soft, sweet speaking voice and made a good impression, though she was bashful and blushed so much that unkind observers compared her to the inn sign of the Rose and Crown.
"Marlborough was swiftly appointed captain-general of the army and sent off to The Hague to reassure the Dutch. Sarah was made mistress of the robes, groom of the stole and keeper of the privy purse, which put her in control of the royal household. Anne and George established themselves at Kensington Palace and there was much hurrying and scurrying to get everything ready for the coronation, which was set for St George’s Day. A Mrs Banks charged thirty shillings for making the coronation petticoat and Mrs Ducaila, the hairdresser, supplied a wig and false curls along with twenty-four yards of gold ribbon.
"When the great day came, the Queen was too lame and unwieldy to walk. Yeomen of the guard carried her to Westminster Abbey in an open chair under a canopy, with six yards of train trailing behind to be managed by the Duchess of Somerset and other ladies. At the church door Anne disembarked from the chair and walked in. According to Celia Fiennes, who was watching, she wore crimson velvet over a golden robe richly embroidered with jewels and a petticoat with bands of gold and silver lace between rows of diamonds, while more diamonds blazed in her hair. She was crowned queen of England, Scotland, Ireland and France at about four o’clock in the afternoon by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Tenison, with a specially made crown flaming with huge diamonds. The sermon was preached by John Sharp, Archbishop of York, on a text which the Queen herself had chosen: ‘Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and queens thy nursing mothers’ (Isaiah 49:23). Gold medals were scattered about in profusion and the nobility, led by Prince George, did her homage.
"Leaving the abbey on foot, ‘with obliging looks and bows to all that saluted her’, the Queen crossed to Westminster Hall, where the traditional coronation banquet was held and the Queen’s champion rode in on horseback to challenge anyone who denied the new monarch’s right to the crown to combat. Prudently, no one did and Queen Anne was able to retreat to St James’s at about half past eight, tired out.
Anne proved to be a far stronger character than anyone had supposed and Sarah Churchill would be sent packing. Winston Churchill, indeed, thought Anne was one of the toughest personalities ever to occupy the English throne. She loved England and was popular with her subjects throughout her reign, to her death in 1714 at the age of forty-nine."
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Article from History Today by Richard Cavendish describing the coronation of Queen Anne on April 23rd, 1702.
"The last of the Stuarts on the English throne, Anne was thirty-seven when she succeeded her brother-in-law William III on March 8th, 1702. She was devoted to her husband, Prince George of Denmark, and he to her, but of their five children by her continual pregnancies, none had survived. Shy, plain, red-faced and dumpy, growing increasingly stout and a martyr to rheumatism, she was not considered intelligent and at this point she was under the thumb of her old friend from school days, Sarah Jennings, the brilliant and strong-minded wife of John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough.
"Marlborough had made efficient preparations for the succession with his two principal allies, Sidney Godolphin and Robert Harley. An accession council was held immediately at St James’s Palace in London, at which the new queen promised to continue the late king’s policies. Members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons came to kiss her hand and were graciously received as the heralds proclaimed her in the streets. The principal members of the government were confirmed in office for a month at least. On March 11th, crowned and dressed in red velvet, Anne delivered her first formal speech to Parliament. ‘As I know my own heart to be entirely English,’ she said, ‘I can very sincerely assure you that there is not anything you can expect or desire from me which I shall not be ready to do for the happiness and prosperity of England.’ She had a soft, sweet speaking voice and made a good impression, though she was bashful and blushed so much that unkind observers compared her to the inn sign of the Rose and Crown.
"Marlborough was swiftly appointed captain-general of the army and sent off to The Hague to reassure the Dutch. Sarah was made mistress of the robes, groom of the stole and keeper of the privy purse, which put her in control of the royal household. Anne and George established themselves at Kensington Palace and there was much hurrying and scurrying to get everything ready for the coronation, which was set for St George’s Day. A Mrs Banks charged thirty shillings for making the coronation petticoat and Mrs Ducaila, the hairdresser, supplied a wig and false curls along with twenty-four yards of gold ribbon.
"When the great day came, the Queen was too lame and unwieldy to walk. Yeomen of the guard carried her to Westminster Abbey in an open chair under a canopy, with six yards of train trailing behind to be managed by the Duchess of Somerset and other ladies. At the church door Anne disembarked from the chair and walked in. According to Celia Fiennes, who was watching, she wore crimson velvet over a golden robe richly embroidered with jewels and a petticoat with bands of gold and silver lace between rows of diamonds, while more diamonds blazed in her hair. She was crowned queen of England, Scotland, Ireland and France at about four o’clock in the afternoon by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Tenison, with a specially made crown flaming with huge diamonds. The sermon was preached by John Sharp, Archbishop of York, on a text which the Queen herself had chosen: ‘Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and queens thy nursing mothers’ (Isaiah 49:23). Gold medals were scattered about in profusion and the nobility, led by Prince George, did her homage.
"Leaving the abbey on foot, ‘with obliging looks and bows to all that saluted her’, the Queen crossed to Westminster Hall, where the traditional coronation banquet was held and the Queen’s champion rode in on horseback to challenge anyone who denied the new monarch’s right to the crown to combat. Prudently, no one did and Queen Anne was able to retreat to St James’s at about half past eight, tired out.
Anne proved to be a far stronger character than anyone had supposed and Sarah Churchill would be sent packing. Winston Churchill, indeed, thought Anne was one of the toughest personalities ever to occupy the English throne. She loved England and was popular with her subjects throughout her reign, to her death in 1714 at the age of forty-nine."
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Friday, April 22, 2011
Virginia Dare and the 16th-Century Lost Colonies of the Outer Banks
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The Roanoke Colonies
The Roanoke Colonies were an ambitious attempt by England's Sir Walter Raleigh to establish a permanent North American settlement with the purpose of harassing Spanish shipping, mining for gold and silver, discovering a passage to the Pacific Ocean, and Christianizing the Indians. After three voyages the enterprise ended in the mysterious disappearance of the "Lost Colony."
Sir Walter Raleigh 1522-1618
The first voyage, a reconnaissance venture led by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, landed in 1584 on the Outer Banks of present-day North Carolina and made mostly friendly contact there with the Algonquian-speaking Indians, even returning to England with two of them: Manteo and Wanchese. Boosted by Barlowe's positive report and Queen Elizabeth's grant to settle "Virginia," the second voyage, in 1585, established a fortified camp on Roanoke Island.
John White and Thomas Hariot accompanied explorations of the mainland and the Chesapeake Bay, creating maps, paintings, and descriptions of native culture. But after less than a year in America and shortly after beheading the Indian chief Pemisapan (Wingina), the English abandoned the colony.
They returned the next year, this time under White's leadership and intending to settle in the Chesapeake; instead, they reoccupied Roanoke. After White sailed to England to update Raleigh and obtain additional supplies, he was delayed by the Spanish Armada. By the time he returned in 1590, the colonists, including his granddaughter, Virginia Dare, had disappeared.
The First Voyage (1584)
Half-brothers Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh shared a passion for exploration and colonization. In 1578, Queen Elizabeth presented Gilbert with a six-year grant to explore and settle, on her behalf, unclaimed portions of North America. Fearing war with Catholic Spain and coveting Spanish wealth from Central and South America, Elizabeth saw the American coast as a potential haven for privateers such as Sir Francis Drake. The effective propagandists (and namesake cousins) Richard Hakluyt (the elder) and Richard Hakluyt (the younger) argued further for the region's commercial possibilities and endorsed the mission of converting Indians to the Protestant faith.
Anglorum in Virginiam aduentus - The Arrival of the English in Virginia
An eleven-ship fleet, captained by Gilbert and including Raleigh, set sail in September 1578 but made it only as far as the coast of Africa before turning back. In March 1580, Gilbert dispatched the Azorean-born pirate Simon Fernandes on a reconnaissance voyage to New England and the mid-Atlantic coast before himself leading a larger mission, in June 1583, first to Newfoundland and then to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Unquenchably adventurous and sometimes reckless, Gilbert ran into a nasty storm and died at sea. But by then Gilbert's brother Raleigh was close to the queen, who appreciated his lavish dress and what one observer described as his "strong natural wit" and "bold and plausible tongue." Held fast to London by Elizabeth's affection, Raleigh nevertheless ordered a new mission. Two small ships (their names unknown) sailed from Plymouth on April 27, 1584, one commanded by the short, temperamental Philip Amadas, the other by Arthur Barlowe, a well-read comrade of Raleigh's from the fighting in Ireland. With about seventy-five soldiers and sailors aboard, Fernandes served as chief pilot, while the painter John White and the mathematician Thomas Hariot may have tagged along as something like resident artist-intellectuals.
Thomas Hariot
A Spanish captive later claimed that when the party arrived at the Outer Banks, the Indians attacked them and "ate thirty-eight Englishmen." Barlowe describes no such thing; the Indians' welcome, which came three days after the colonists arrived early in July, appears to have been friendly and ritualistic. Three Indians appeared, Barlowe writes, "never making any show of fear or doubt," and one of them spoke at length, after which he was bestowed with gifts and treated to wine and meat.
The Indians were emissaries of Wingina, the weroance, or chief, of the Roanokes. Although the English originally understood these Indians to call their territory Wingandacon, it was more properly known as Ossomocomuck. Wingina ruled several of its towns, including Secotan and Dasemunkepeuc on the mainland and another village on the north end of Roanoke Island. His enemy, Piemacum, ruled from Pomeiooc and had severely wounded Wingina in a battle shortly before the Englishmen's arrival. The Croatoan Indians lived on a barrier island, while to the mainland's north and west resided the Weapemeocs, whose weroance Okisco was subject to the more powerful Menatonon, chief of the Chowanocs. All of these Indians were Algonquian-speaking and their culture closely related to the Algonquian Indians of Tsenacomoco in present-day Tidewater Virginia. Other groups in the area included the Algonquian-speaking Pamlicos; the Neuse and Coree, who may have been Iroquoian-speakers; and the Tuscaroras, who definitely were Iroquoian-speakers and who also may have been known as the Mangoaks.
Oppidum Pomeiooc - Town of Pomeiooc
Barlowe was extravagantly impressed by Ossomocomuck, praising its "goodly woods, full of Deer, Conies [rabbits], Hares, and Fowl, even in the midst of Summer, in incredible abundance," not to mention "the highest, reddest Cedars of the world." The Indians, who had been suffering through a severe drought and who lacked extra stores of food, were unsure of how to react to the English encroachment. Some may have been as friendly as Barlowe claimed; others were less so. Hariot later wrote of the Roanoke Indians raising up a "horrible crye, as people which never befoer had seene men appareled like us, and camme a way makinge out crys like wild beasts or men out of their wyts." Amadas and Fernandes, meanwhile, took a ship to, probably, the north side of Albemarle Sound, and there encountered hostile Indians.
Politics in Ossomocomuck was organized on the district level, with paramount chiefs ruling two or more towns, each with its own chief: Wingina on Roanoke and his close relative Granganimeo at Dasemunkepeuc attempted to win the English as allies, while other chiefs saw their presence as a threat. When the English left in mid-August, Wingina sent with them two high-ranking Indians: Wanchese, a Roanoke who probably served as an adviser to Wingina, and Manteo, the son of the Croatoans' weroansqua, or female chief. His name, which he possibly changed on the occasion of the trip, echoes the Algonquian word montoac, meaning the otherworldly spirit or power with which the Indians sought communion. His and Wanchese's job was to investigate what the Indians saw as the Englishmen's undeniable connection to montoac and to discover how the Roanokes might also harness it.
The Second Voyage (1585)
In London, Manteo and Wanchese took up residence at Durham House, a mansion on the Thames River granted Raleigh by the queen. There, they taught Hariot Algonquian and he taught them English. Raleigh, who was doing everything he could to raise money and support for a large-scale colonizing effort at Roanoke, likely even presented the pair at court. Barlowe prepared a report that emphasized the most positive aspects of the summer's mission and Hakluyt (the younger) presented to the queen and her advisors a sustained and forceful argument for colonization, Discourse on Western Planting. By December, Raleigh had the support of both the Crown and the House of Commons, and on January 6, 1585, he was knighted during a celebration of the Twelfth Night of Christmas; shortly afterward, he assumed a title, Lord and Governor of Virginia, that revealed a new name for the queen's colony.
Queen Elizabeth I at her Coronation
The Virginia settlement appeared to be part of a larger strategy developed by Elizabeth in her war against Spain. She would send an army to the Netherlands to fight on behalf of the Protestants there, Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies to disrupt Spanish shipping, and Raleigh's colonists to Roanoke Island to establish a harbor for English privateers who would prey upon the Spanish. She also hoped they might find gold and silver, as well as convert the natives. On April 9, 1585, the 600 or so colonists, again minus Raleigh, sailed from Plymouth in five ships and two smaller pinnaces. Sir Richard Grenville, Raleigh's often arrogant and bull-headed cousin, commanded the flagship Tiger, piloted by the ever-present Simon Fernandes. Colonel Ralph Lane, recently the sheriff of County Kerry, Ireland, was second in command, with Amadas, Barlowe, White, Hariot, Manteo, and Wanchese also present. About half the colonists were soldiers, but there also were carpenters, smiths, cooks, shoemakers, and at least one minister. All were men.
On May 11, Grenville and the Tiger stopped for a few weeks at mosquito-ridden Mosquetal in present-day Puerto Rico, waiting for other ships that had become separated during a storm off Portugal. (White spent his time there painting Grenville's fortifications, as well as the island's flora and fauna.) On June 26, the Tiger dropped anchor at the Outer Banks barrier island of Wococon, about eighty miles to the southwest of Roanoke. Perhaps Fernandes did not fully appreciate just how treacherous navigation in the area could be, because three days later he ran the ship aground attempting to steer through an inlet. Much of the cargo was ruined. Having arrived with a year's worth of provisions for hundreds of colonists, now Grenville had enough food for just twenty days. This unanticipated dilemma proved crucial to how he and his men interacted with the Indians of Ossomocomuck.
The Indians, meanwhile, were no less divided now about the English than they had been the year before. During the English absence, Wingina's people had observed a total eclipse of the sun, and immediately upon the colonists' reappearance, a comet had slowly blazed across the sky. The Algonquians thought these to be potentially significant signs, and when villages began to suffer from a quick-moving, often-fatal illness, they saw all of these events as related. On July 3, Grenville sent a pinnace and small crew, including Wanchese, north to Roanoke to announce their arrival to Wingina. Wanchese fled the English to Dasemunkepeuc, where he warned that the colonists could not be trusted. In contrast, Manteo continued to wear Western clothes, perfect his English, and support Grenville.
On July 11, Grenville led a group of sixty men, including Manteo, on a weeklong trip to the mainland. They visited the villages of Pomeiooc, home of Wingina's rival Piemacum; Aquascogoc; and finally Secotan. White composed detailed paintings of Pomeiooc and Secotan, but a missing cup at Aquascogoc led to a return trip by Philip Amadas, who burned the village for the supposed thievery after its residents had evacuated. On July 21, Grenville and Manteo met with Granganimeo, weroance of Dasemunkepeuc, and he granted them permission to occupy the north end of Roanoke, about half a mile from Wingina's town. The English were dependent on the Indians for food and guidance, but the Indians increasingly worried about the colonists' violence. Still, as the historian Michael Leroy Oberg puts it, the "English colonists came to Roanoke Island not as discoverers but as invited guests."
Oppidum Secota - The Town of Secota
Later that summer, Grenville returned to England, leaving behind 108 men under the charge of Ralph Lane and expecting a relief mission to arrive in the autumn. (It didn't; Elizabeth had diverted it to the Netherlands.) That winter hungry colonists, likely led by Amadas, sailed to the Chesapeake Bay, where they visited Skicoak, capital of the Chesapeake Indians, and may, in turn, have been visited there by groups from the Eastern Shore. (Historians disagree over whether both White and Hariot joined the expedition, or just one of them did; regardless, they later collaborated on elaborate maps of the region.) Meanwhile, disease and famine took their toll on the Indians back at Roanoke—Granganimeo died early in 1586—so that when Amadas returned in the spring, Wingina was considering whether to attempt wiping out the intruders.
A later account by Ralph Lane accuses Wingina of concocting an elaborate plan by which the weroance would eliminate the English by sending them into the clutches of the powerful Chowanocs and their chief, Menatonon. While possible, it seems more likely that Wingina—who at this time changed his name to Pemisapan, possibly meaning "one who vigilantly watches"—took a middle course, removing his people to Dasemunkepeuc and cutting Lane off from any food supplies. In the meantime, Lane not only met with Menatonon and survived, but the Chowanoc weroance's son Skiko told the colonists of a land called Chaunis Temoatan, beyond Tuscarora territory, where valuable copper was mined.
When Lane returned, Skiko, then his hostage, told Lane of an impending attack by Pemisapan. Skiko possibly was lying, thereby playing the situation to the Chowanocs' advantage. Either way, on June 1 Lane preemptively stormed Dasemunkepeuc, and when Pemisapan, after being shot by Amadas, fled into the woods, an Irish colonist named Edward Nugent gave chase and emerged finally with the chief's head. Ironically, Pemisapan probably had located the Englishmen on Roanoke in order to control access to them, but their proximity had only caused disease and, finally, the weroance's death. Still divided, the Indians declined to immediately retaliate, and on June 8, when a fleet of twenty-three ships led by Sir Francis Drake and including the future Virginia governor Sir Thomas Gates arrived unexpectedly, Lane thought his hungry men might be saved. But a three-day hurricane struck, ruining the ship Drake had promised to leave the colonists. Abruptly, Lane decided to abandon Roanoke, loading his men onto the ships and returning to England.
A relief mission arrived a few weeks later only to find the settlers gone. The same happened to Grenville, who, along with six ships and 200 colonists, landed at Roanoke in July. (One historian speculates that an Indian found hanging from a tree could have been Skiko.) After staying for a few weeks, Grenville set sail again, leaving behind a garrison of fifteen soldiers with enough provisions to last a year.
The Lost Colony (1587)
Raleigh was furious at Lane for leaving Roanoke, while at the same time intrigued by stories of Chaunis Temoatan and a possible passage to the Pacific Ocean. Even as his interest in Virginia waned in favor of Ireland, he approved one last mission, this time to be led by the artist John White. The plan called for the establishment of the "Cittie of Raleigh," not at Roanoke but on the Chesapeake Bay, where the Indians appeared to be friendlier and the waters more suitable for deep-water navigation. Casting off on May 8, 1587, White carried with him more than a hundred settlers, including families this time—even his own pregnant daughter, Elinor Dare, and her husband, Ananias Dare—and possibly Puritan religious dissenters. First, though, Simon Fernandes piloted the flagship Lion to Roanoke so that they might check on Grenville's men and drop off Manteo and his companion Towaye, who had spent the last ten months in England. They arrived on July 22, but the soldiers weren't there. "We found none of them," White later wrote, "nor any sign that they had been there, saving only we found the bones of one of those fifteen, which the Savages had slain long before."
To make matters worse, one of Fernandes's sailors indicated that White's men were not welcome to reboard the Lion, that they should stay at Roanoke because "the Summer was farre spent." (Fernandes still hoped to make it back to the West Indies in time to loot Spanish ships.) This is one of the great controversies surrounding the Lost Colony. White wrote, referring to himself in the third person, that "it booted [suited] not the Governor to contend" with Fernandes, but the governor's refusal to argue the point—and to carry out Raleigh's explicit instructions for the colony—has long puzzled historians. James Horn has argued that the incident only makes sense if White and Fernandes actually agreed on making the change. White's later account, blaming Fernandes, was therefore intended to deflect his patron's anger over the change in plans.
Whatever the case, Roanoke was where the colonists would settle, at least for the moment. If they were nervous contemplating the apparent deaths of Grenville's men, they must have been more so after the death of White's adviser George Howe on July 28. Howe was found in the woods two miles from camp, dead from sixteen arrows and a gruesome beating. Three days later, White sailed south to meet with the Croatoans, who reported that both Grenville's men and Howe had been killed by Wanchese's Roanokes at Dasemunkepeuc. Manteo's people, meanwhile, promised to support the English on one condition: "that there might be some token or badge given them of us, whereby we might know them to be our friends, when we met them any where out of the Town or Island." It was a reasonable request, but one that would turn out to be tragically ironic.
White asked the Croatoans to spread the word in Ossomocomuck that the English were interested in talking peace if they heard from the Indians within seven days. They did not, so sometime after midnight on August 9, Manteo led White and some of his men across the water to Dasemunkepeuc. There they attacked the town only to discover, too late, that it was occupied by friendly Croatoans, and not enemy Roanokes. (Whatever tokens or badges the Croatoans might have worn were not visible in the dark of night.) Wanchese's people had apparently abandoned the town after killing Howe, and now White's party had accidentally killed the weroance Menatonon and a number of others. Although this turn of events "somewhat grieved Manteo," according to White, the Indian remained with the English; on August 13 he was baptized into the Church of England and christened lord of Roanoke and Dasemunkepeuc.
Manteo and Virginia Dare from the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. "In August of the year 1587, a man of the Algonquin nation named Manteo, and an infant daughter of English settlers named Virginia Dare, were baptized on Roanoke Island at a settlement established under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh that would later become known as “The Lost Colony.” Theirs were the first recorded baptisms by the Church of England in North America."
August 18, White's daughter gave birth to Virginia Dare, and on August 21, Fernandes and his sailors were finally finished unloading the three ships and prepared to set sail. All that remained was for the settlers to decide who among them would accompany Fernandes back to England to update Raleigh on all that had occurred. Remarkably, no one volunteered; instead, the settlers demanded that White—their leader and the most experienced among them when it came to navigating the perils and politics of Ossomocomuck—represent them. He later claimed that he at first refused; then he demanded that the settlers put their request in writing, with an emphasis on their "one minde" and White's reluctance—which they did on August 25. Two days later White was gone, never to see any of them again.
Queen Elizabeth had been fighting the Spanish on the seas and in the Netherlands, and now King Philip II was ready to launch an invasion of England. Despite a prohibition on all English ships leaving port, Raleigh managed to arrange for a two-ship relief mission that sailed on April 22, 1588, three months ahead of the fearsome Spanish Armada. But a fight at sea with the French left the ships limping back to England, and White was unable to arrange another mission until 1590, when four ships finally sailed for Roanoke. These were privateers; they carried with them no additional settlers or supplies and agreed only to drop off White at the colony. When a storm sank one of the ships upon arrival, they were even more anxious to move on, but on August 18, 1590, White and a company of sailors landed on Roanoke. It was his granddaughter's third birthday.
The camp was abandoned, with the word "CROATOAN" carved on a post. Three years earlier, White and the settlers had agreed that if they needed to move, they would indicate their destination in just such a way; if they were under duress, they would carve a cross above the letters. To White's relief, no such cross could be found. But it was hurricane season, and another fierce storm ruined his plans to sail to Manteo's island. Instead, the privateers, and White along with them, sailed on, first to the West Indies and then to England. The Lost Colonists, as they came to be known, were never found.
Legacy
Historians have debated the colonists' fate for centuries. Some have assumed that, like Grenville's soldiers, they were quickly killed. Others have found evidence of another scenario: that they survived for twenty years among the Chowanocs and Weapemeocs or perhaps even the Chesapeakes, assimilating into their culture. The settlers at Jamestown had heard rumors to this effect, and during the First Anglo-Powhatan War (1609–1614), the Virginia colony's secretary, William Strachey, suggested that the paramount chief Powhatan had ordered them killed. Presumably the chief worried that these former Roanoke English men and women in his midst might join with the new settlers, posing too great a threat. Captain John Smith and others looked but never found them.
The Lost Colony, meanwhile, has developed into one of the great legends of American history. Its story has traditionally focused on English discovery, apparent domination, and sudden disappearance. Virginia Dare has played an important role, too, as the first child born to English parents in North America. Her name is a reminder that the Virginia colony has its roots earlier than Jamestown and to the south. But Dare also serves to deflect attention from the Indians of Ossomocomuck, without whom Raleigh's colonists might never have survived at Roanoke. And although the legend revolves around the loss of white colonists, it's important to the note that the Indians of Ossomocomuck also largely disappeared, the victims of encroaching English and then American culture.
Time Line
June 1578 - Queen Elizabeth I grants Sir Humphrey Gilbert the right to explore North America and to plant colonies in those places not already claimed by other European powers. The grant expires in six years.
September 1578 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert, commanding 11 ships and 500 men, departs from Dartmouth, England, bound for North America. Three ships desert the mission even before weighing anchor, and Gilbert makes it only as far as the African coast. Walter Raleigh, in a ship piloted by the Azorean-born pirate Simon Fernandes, also turns back.
March 1580 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert dispatches a small reconnaissance mission, led by the Azorean-born pirate Simon Fernandes, to explore North America from New England to the mid-Atlantic coast. He returns early in the summer.
Summer 1580 - Walter Raleigh fights in Ireland.
Winter 1581–1582 - Walter Raleigh returns from Ireland to Queen Elizabeth's court, and over the next year his position there rises quickly, as does his personal wealth.
Summer 1582 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert raises money for a new North American voyage while actively recruiting Catholics to plant a colony there, possibly in the area of New England.
1583 - Early in the year, Queen Elizabeth I grants her court favorite, Walter Raleigh, use of Durham House on the Thames River. He uses the palatial mansion to gather experts to help him plan his colonizing ventures.
August 20, 1583 - In the midst of his colonizing venture, Sir Humphrey Gilbert leaves St. John's, Newfoundland, for Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. When his flagship sinks, Gilbert sails for England but is lost at sea.
April 27, 1584 - Under the aegis of Walter Raleigh, two ships (names unknown) leave Plymouth, England, for North America. One of the ships, weighing about 50 tons with about 45 soldiers and sailors, is commanded by Philip Amadas with Simon Fernandes as pilot. The other, a 30- to 40-ton pinnace, carries Captain Arthur Barlowe and about 30 men.
July 13, 1584 - The English exploration party led by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe goes ashore somewhere on the Outer Banks of present-day North Carolina, claiming the land "in the right of the Queens most excellent Majesty."
Mid-August 1584 - The English exploration party led by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe sails for England, taking along two high-ranking Algonquian-speaking Indians, Wanchese and Manteo.
Winter 1584–1585 - Queen Elizabeth I develops a strategy in her war against Spain. She will send an army to the Netherlands to fight on behalf of the Protestants, Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies to disrupt Spanish shipping, and colonists to Roanoke Island to establish a harbor for privateers.
December 1584 - Walter Raleigh introduces a bill in Parliament to confirm his royal patent for colonizing North America. Capitalizing on the enthusiastic report by Arthur Barlowe of the summer's voyage to America, Raleigh wins support from Sir Francis Drake and Sir Richard Grenville, even as the bill fails in the House of Lords.
January 6, 1585 - On the Twelfth Night of the Christmas holiday, Walter Raleigh is knighted at Greenwich, England. Shortly thereafter he assumes the title Lord and Governor of Virginia.
April 9, 1585 - An expedition of colonists led by Sir Richard Grenville and including the artist John White and the mathematician Thomas Hariot leaves England bound for Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina.
May 11, 1585 - Having separated from the fleet's other ships in a storm off Portugal, Sir Richard Grenville and the flagship Tiger drop anchor at the island of St. John's (present-day Puerto Rico), establishing a fortified camp at Mosquetal (present-day Guayanilla Bay). They stay for a few weeks, and John White paints the local flora and fauna.
June 26, 1585 - About a week after sighting the American mainland, Sir Richard Grenville and the Tiger land at Wococon Island, one of the barrier islands of the Outer Banks of present-day North Carolina.
June 29, 1585 - The Tiger, commanded by Sir Richard Grenville and piloted by Simon Fernandes, runs aground trying to navigate an inlet near Wococon Island. Much of the cargo is lost, leaving the hundreds of colonists with only twenty days' worth of food.
July 11, 1585 - Sir Richard Grenville leads a party of sixty men, including the Indian Manteo, on a weeklong trip to the mainland, where they visit the villages of Pomeiooc, Aquascogoc, and Secotan. John White paints the first and last of these, but a missing cup at Aquascogoc leads Philip Amadas to burn the town.
July 21, 1585 - Sir Richard Grenville meets with Manteo and the weroance Granganimeo, who give him permission to settle his colonists on the north end of Roanoke Island.
August 5, 1585 - A ship is sent back to England to update Sir Walter Raleigh on the colony's progress; it is soon followed by other ships.
August 25, 1585 - Sir Richard Grenville, aboard the Tiger, departs Roanoke for England, followed shortly by the Roebuck. On the return voyage, he captures the Spanish merchant ship Santa Maria de San Vicente, worth around £300,000.
Autumn 1585 - A fleet of ships commanded by Bernard Drake and Amias Preston, intended to resupply the colonists on Roanoke Island, does not arrive as planned. Unknown to the colonists, it has been diverted to the war in the Netherlands.
October–November 1585 - An expedition of Roanoke colonists, likely led by Philip Amadas, departs for the Chesapeake Bay, eventually visiting the Chesapeakes' capital of Skicoak and several villages on the Eastern Shore. It is unclear whether one or both of John White and Thomas Hariot go along.
February–March 1586 - The English colonists return to Roanoke Island after their expedition to the Chesapeake Bay. In their absence, the Roanoke Indians have suffered from disease (brought by the English) and famine, straining relations with the remaining English.
Spring 1586 - The Roanoke Indian weroance Wingina ritually changes his name to Pemisapan. He relocates his people to the mainland town of Dasemunkepeuc and cuts off the food supply to the English colonists on Roanoke Island.
June 1, 1586 - Ralph Lane and twenty-six men, including the Indian Manteo, march into Dasemunkepeuc. Philip Amadas shoots the weroance Pemisapan, who pretends to be dead before fleeing into the woods. The colonist Edward Nugent gives chase and returns with the chief's head.
June 8, 1586 - A fleet of twenty-three ships led by Sir Francis Drake, which had been harassing the Spanish in the West Indies and Florida, arrives at the Outer Banks to resupply the colonists at Roanoke Island. A three-day hurricane scatters the ships, and Ralph Lane decides to abandon the colony.
July 1586 - The English colonists from Roanoke Island arrive at Portsmouth, England. At the same time, Sir Richard Grenville, with six ships and 200 colonists, arrives at Roanoke to find it abandoned. He and his men stay a few weeks then return to England, leaving behind a garrison of fifteen men, who are soon killed by Indians.
May 8, 1587 - Three ships and approximately 150 settlers and crew sail for America from Plymouth, England. John White is governor of the expedition that plans to stop off at Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina before establishing the "Cittie of Raleigh" on the Chesapeake Bay.
July 22, 1587 - After landing on the Outer Banks of present-day North Carolina, John White and forty men sail to Roanoke Island to check on a garrison of soldiers left there the year before. They find only the bones of one of the men.
July 23, 1587 - John White and his men travel to the north end of Roanoke Island in search of a garrison of fifteen soldiers left behind the year before. They find nothing.
July 28, 1587 - George Howe, an adviser to John White, leader of the Roanoke colony, is found dead about two miles from camp. He has been shot by sixteen arrows and beaten.
July 31, 1587 - A contingent from the English colony at Roanoke travels to meet with the Croatoan Indians. They learn that their fellow settler George Howe, along with a garrison of fifteen soldiers, has been killed by Roanoke Indians living at Dasemunkepeuc.
August 9, 1587 - A party of Roanoke colonists, led by the Indian Manteo, attacks the town of Dasemunkepeuc in the early morning hours. Instead of killing enemy Roanoke Indians, however, they kill friendly Croatoans, including the weroance Menatonon.
August 13, 1587 - Manteo, a Croatoan Indian who has visited England twice and assisted the English settlers at Roanoke, is baptized into the Church of England and christened lord of Roanoke and Dasemunkepeuc.
August 18, 1587 - Elinor White Dare gives birth to Virginia Dare on Roanoke Island. Elinor White Dare's father is the colony's governor, John White, and her husband, Ananias Dare, is one of White's advisers. The baby is the first born to English parents in North America.
August 21, 1587 - Three ships are finished unloading and pilot Simon Fernandes is ready to set sail for England from the colony at Roanoke Island. First, however, the settlers need to designate a representative to accompany Fernandes with the mission of updating Sir Walter Raleigh on the colony. No one volunteers.
August 24, 1587 - Virginia Dare, daughter of Elinor White Dare and Ananias Dare, is christened at the English colony on Roanoke Island.
August 25, 1587 - The English colonists on Roanoke Island put in writing their request that their governor, John White, return to England as their representative in order to update Sir Walter Raleigh on the colony. They emphasize White's reluctance and their unanimity.
August 27, 1587 - John White sails for England from the colony at Roanoke Island, leaving behind 117 settlers, including his daughter and granddaughter. He will never see them again.
April 22, 1588 - Two small ships, the Brave and the Roe, plus John White and fifteen settlers, sail from Bideford, England, on a mission to resupply the English colony at Roanoke Island. The two ships are separated and, after a fight with the French, are forced to return to England.
March 20, 1590 - Four English privateering ships set sail from England on a mission to drop off John White at the English colony at Roanoke Island. White had left the colonists there three years ago and was delayed by the Spanish Armada; he returns with no passengers or supplies.
August 16, 1590 - John White arrives back at the Outer Banks in an attempt to rejoin the English colonists at Roanoke Island, including his daughter and granddaughter. He has been gone for three years.
August 17, 1590 - A storm sinks one of the ships anchored at the Outer Banks, killing the captain and six crewmen. The ships are there to drop off John White at the English colony at Roanoke Island after a three-year absence.
August 18, 1590 - John White and a company of sailors go ashore at Roanoke Island. Hoping to be reunited with his granddaughter on her third birthday, White instead finds the colony abandoned. The word "CROATOAN" is carved into a post, suggesting the colonists may have relocated to that island.
October 1590 - After being unable to find the 117 colonists he left at Roanoke Island three years before, John White returns to England. He will never see his daughter or granddaughter again.
Further Reading
Horn, James. A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony. Savage, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1984.
Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. New York: Penguin, 2002.
Oberg, Michael Leroy. The Head in Edward Nugent's Hand: Roanoke's Forgotten Indians. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
Quinn, David Beers. The Roanoke Voyages 1584–1590: Documents to Illustrate the English Voyages to North America under the Patent Granted to Walter Raleigh in 1584. 2 vols. London, England: The Hakluyt Society, 1955.
Quinn, David Beers. Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584–1590. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
This entry was written by Wolfe, Brendan . "The Roanoke Colonies." Encyclopedia Virginia. Ed. Caitlin Newman. 22 Apr. 2011. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. 19 Apr. 2011.
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The Roanoke Colonies
The Roanoke Colonies were an ambitious attempt by England's Sir Walter Raleigh to establish a permanent North American settlement with the purpose of harassing Spanish shipping, mining for gold and silver, discovering a passage to the Pacific Ocean, and Christianizing the Indians. After three voyages the enterprise ended in the mysterious disappearance of the "Lost Colony."
The first voyage, a reconnaissance venture led by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, landed in 1584 on the Outer Banks of present-day North Carolina and made mostly friendly contact there with the Algonquian-speaking Indians, even returning to England with two of them: Manteo and Wanchese. Boosted by Barlowe's positive report and Queen Elizabeth's grant to settle "Virginia," the second voyage, in 1585, established a fortified camp on Roanoke Island.
John White and Thomas Hariot accompanied explorations of the mainland and the Chesapeake Bay, creating maps, paintings, and descriptions of native culture. But after less than a year in America and shortly after beheading the Indian chief Pemisapan (Wingina), the English abandoned the colony.
They returned the next year, this time under White's leadership and intending to settle in the Chesapeake; instead, they reoccupied Roanoke. After White sailed to England to update Raleigh and obtain additional supplies, he was delayed by the Spanish Armada. By the time he returned in 1590, the colonists, including his granddaughter, Virginia Dare, had disappeared.
The First Voyage (1584)
Half-brothers Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Raleigh shared a passion for exploration and colonization. In 1578, Queen Elizabeth presented Gilbert with a six-year grant to explore and settle, on her behalf, unclaimed portions of North America. Fearing war with Catholic Spain and coveting Spanish wealth from Central and South America, Elizabeth saw the American coast as a potential haven for privateers such as Sir Francis Drake. The effective propagandists (and namesake cousins) Richard Hakluyt (the elder) and Richard Hakluyt (the younger) argued further for the region's commercial possibilities and endorsed the mission of converting Indians to the Protestant faith.
An eleven-ship fleet, captained by Gilbert and including Raleigh, set sail in September 1578 but made it only as far as the coast of Africa before turning back. In March 1580, Gilbert dispatched the Azorean-born pirate Simon Fernandes on a reconnaissance voyage to New England and the mid-Atlantic coast before himself leading a larger mission, in June 1583, first to Newfoundland and then to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Unquenchably adventurous and sometimes reckless, Gilbert ran into a nasty storm and died at sea. But by then Gilbert's brother Raleigh was close to the queen, who appreciated his lavish dress and what one observer described as his "strong natural wit" and "bold and plausible tongue." Held fast to London by Elizabeth's affection, Raleigh nevertheless ordered a new mission. Two small ships (their names unknown) sailed from Plymouth on April 27, 1584, one commanded by the short, temperamental Philip Amadas, the other by Arthur Barlowe, a well-read comrade of Raleigh's from the fighting in Ireland. With about seventy-five soldiers and sailors aboard, Fernandes served as chief pilot, while the painter John White and the mathematician Thomas Hariot may have tagged along as something like resident artist-intellectuals.
A Spanish captive later claimed that when the party arrived at the Outer Banks, the Indians attacked them and "ate thirty-eight Englishmen." Barlowe describes no such thing; the Indians' welcome, which came three days after the colonists arrived early in July, appears to have been friendly and ritualistic. Three Indians appeared, Barlowe writes, "never making any show of fear or doubt," and one of them spoke at length, after which he was bestowed with gifts and treated to wine and meat.
The Indians were emissaries of Wingina, the weroance, or chief, of the Roanokes. Although the English originally understood these Indians to call their territory Wingandacon, it was more properly known as Ossomocomuck. Wingina ruled several of its towns, including Secotan and Dasemunkepeuc on the mainland and another village on the north end of Roanoke Island. His enemy, Piemacum, ruled from Pomeiooc and had severely wounded Wingina in a battle shortly before the Englishmen's arrival. The Croatoan Indians lived on a barrier island, while to the mainland's north and west resided the Weapemeocs, whose weroance Okisco was subject to the more powerful Menatonon, chief of the Chowanocs. All of these Indians were Algonquian-speaking and their culture closely related to the Algonquian Indians of Tsenacomoco in present-day Tidewater Virginia. Other groups in the area included the Algonquian-speaking Pamlicos; the Neuse and Coree, who may have been Iroquoian-speakers; and the Tuscaroras, who definitely were Iroquoian-speakers and who also may have been known as the Mangoaks.
Barlowe was extravagantly impressed by Ossomocomuck, praising its "goodly woods, full of Deer, Conies [rabbits], Hares, and Fowl, even in the midst of Summer, in incredible abundance," not to mention "the highest, reddest Cedars of the world." The Indians, who had been suffering through a severe drought and who lacked extra stores of food, were unsure of how to react to the English encroachment. Some may have been as friendly as Barlowe claimed; others were less so. Hariot later wrote of the Roanoke Indians raising up a "horrible crye, as people which never befoer had seene men appareled like us, and camme a way makinge out crys like wild beasts or men out of their wyts." Amadas and Fernandes, meanwhile, took a ship to, probably, the north side of Albemarle Sound, and there encountered hostile Indians.
Politics in Ossomocomuck was organized on the district level, with paramount chiefs ruling two or more towns, each with its own chief: Wingina on Roanoke and his close relative Granganimeo at Dasemunkepeuc attempted to win the English as allies, while other chiefs saw their presence as a threat. When the English left in mid-August, Wingina sent with them two high-ranking Indians: Wanchese, a Roanoke who probably served as an adviser to Wingina, and Manteo, the son of the Croatoans' weroansqua, or female chief. His name, which he possibly changed on the occasion of the trip, echoes the Algonquian word montoac, meaning the otherworldly spirit or power with which the Indians sought communion. His and Wanchese's job was to investigate what the Indians saw as the Englishmen's undeniable connection to montoac and to discover how the Roanokes might also harness it.
The Second Voyage (1585)
In London, Manteo and Wanchese took up residence at Durham House, a mansion on the Thames River granted Raleigh by the queen. There, they taught Hariot Algonquian and he taught them English. Raleigh, who was doing everything he could to raise money and support for a large-scale colonizing effort at Roanoke, likely even presented the pair at court. Barlowe prepared a report that emphasized the most positive aspects of the summer's mission and Hakluyt (the younger) presented to the queen and her advisors a sustained and forceful argument for colonization, Discourse on Western Planting. By December, Raleigh had the support of both the Crown and the House of Commons, and on January 6, 1585, he was knighted during a celebration of the Twelfth Night of Christmas; shortly afterward, he assumed a title, Lord and Governor of Virginia, that revealed a new name for the queen's colony.
The Virginia settlement appeared to be part of a larger strategy developed by Elizabeth in her war against Spain. She would send an army to the Netherlands to fight on behalf of the Protestants there, Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies to disrupt Spanish shipping, and Raleigh's colonists to Roanoke Island to establish a harbor for English privateers who would prey upon the Spanish. She also hoped they might find gold and silver, as well as convert the natives. On April 9, 1585, the 600 or so colonists, again minus Raleigh, sailed from Plymouth in five ships and two smaller pinnaces. Sir Richard Grenville, Raleigh's often arrogant and bull-headed cousin, commanded the flagship Tiger, piloted by the ever-present Simon Fernandes. Colonel Ralph Lane, recently the sheriff of County Kerry, Ireland, was second in command, with Amadas, Barlowe, White, Hariot, Manteo, and Wanchese also present. About half the colonists were soldiers, but there also were carpenters, smiths, cooks, shoemakers, and at least one minister. All were men.
On May 11, Grenville and the Tiger stopped for a few weeks at mosquito-ridden Mosquetal in present-day Puerto Rico, waiting for other ships that had become separated during a storm off Portugal. (White spent his time there painting Grenville's fortifications, as well as the island's flora and fauna.) On June 26, the Tiger dropped anchor at the Outer Banks barrier island of Wococon, about eighty miles to the southwest of Roanoke. Perhaps Fernandes did not fully appreciate just how treacherous navigation in the area could be, because three days later he ran the ship aground attempting to steer through an inlet. Much of the cargo was ruined. Having arrived with a year's worth of provisions for hundreds of colonists, now Grenville had enough food for just twenty days. This unanticipated dilemma proved crucial to how he and his men interacted with the Indians of Ossomocomuck.
The Indians, meanwhile, were no less divided now about the English than they had been the year before. During the English absence, Wingina's people had observed a total eclipse of the sun, and immediately upon the colonists' reappearance, a comet had slowly blazed across the sky. The Algonquians thought these to be potentially significant signs, and when villages began to suffer from a quick-moving, often-fatal illness, they saw all of these events as related. On July 3, Grenville sent a pinnace and small crew, including Wanchese, north to Roanoke to announce their arrival to Wingina. Wanchese fled the English to Dasemunkepeuc, where he warned that the colonists could not be trusted. In contrast, Manteo continued to wear Western clothes, perfect his English, and support Grenville.
On July 11, Grenville led a group of sixty men, including Manteo, on a weeklong trip to the mainland. They visited the villages of Pomeiooc, home of Wingina's rival Piemacum; Aquascogoc; and finally Secotan. White composed detailed paintings of Pomeiooc and Secotan, but a missing cup at Aquascogoc led to a return trip by Philip Amadas, who burned the village for the supposed thievery after its residents had evacuated. On July 21, Grenville and Manteo met with Granganimeo, weroance of Dasemunkepeuc, and he granted them permission to occupy the north end of Roanoke, about half a mile from Wingina's town. The English were dependent on the Indians for food and guidance, but the Indians increasingly worried about the colonists' violence. Still, as the historian Michael Leroy Oberg puts it, the "English colonists came to Roanoke Island not as discoverers but as invited guests."
Later that summer, Grenville returned to England, leaving behind 108 men under the charge of Ralph Lane and expecting a relief mission to arrive in the autumn. (It didn't; Elizabeth had diverted it to the Netherlands.) That winter hungry colonists, likely led by Amadas, sailed to the Chesapeake Bay, where they visited Skicoak, capital of the Chesapeake Indians, and may, in turn, have been visited there by groups from the Eastern Shore. (Historians disagree over whether both White and Hariot joined the expedition, or just one of them did; regardless, they later collaborated on elaborate maps of the region.) Meanwhile, disease and famine took their toll on the Indians back at Roanoke—Granganimeo died early in 1586—so that when Amadas returned in the spring, Wingina was considering whether to attempt wiping out the intruders.
A later account by Ralph Lane accuses Wingina of concocting an elaborate plan by which the weroance would eliminate the English by sending them into the clutches of the powerful Chowanocs and their chief, Menatonon. While possible, it seems more likely that Wingina—who at this time changed his name to Pemisapan, possibly meaning "one who vigilantly watches"—took a middle course, removing his people to Dasemunkepeuc and cutting Lane off from any food supplies. In the meantime, Lane not only met with Menatonon and survived, but the Chowanoc weroance's son Skiko told the colonists of a land called Chaunis Temoatan, beyond Tuscarora territory, where valuable copper was mined.
When Lane returned, Skiko, then his hostage, told Lane of an impending attack by Pemisapan. Skiko possibly was lying, thereby playing the situation to the Chowanocs' advantage. Either way, on June 1 Lane preemptively stormed Dasemunkepeuc, and when Pemisapan, after being shot by Amadas, fled into the woods, an Irish colonist named Edward Nugent gave chase and emerged finally with the chief's head. Ironically, Pemisapan probably had located the Englishmen on Roanoke in order to control access to them, but their proximity had only caused disease and, finally, the weroance's death. Still divided, the Indians declined to immediately retaliate, and on June 8, when a fleet of twenty-three ships led by Sir Francis Drake and including the future Virginia governor Sir Thomas Gates arrived unexpectedly, Lane thought his hungry men might be saved. But a three-day hurricane struck, ruining the ship Drake had promised to leave the colonists. Abruptly, Lane decided to abandon Roanoke, loading his men onto the ships and returning to England.
A relief mission arrived a few weeks later only to find the settlers gone. The same happened to Grenville, who, along with six ships and 200 colonists, landed at Roanoke in July. (One historian speculates that an Indian found hanging from a tree could have been Skiko.) After staying for a few weeks, Grenville set sail again, leaving behind a garrison of fifteen soldiers with enough provisions to last a year.
The Lost Colony (1587)
Raleigh was furious at Lane for leaving Roanoke, while at the same time intrigued by stories of Chaunis Temoatan and a possible passage to the Pacific Ocean. Even as his interest in Virginia waned in favor of Ireland, he approved one last mission, this time to be led by the artist John White. The plan called for the establishment of the "Cittie of Raleigh," not at Roanoke but on the Chesapeake Bay, where the Indians appeared to be friendlier and the waters more suitable for deep-water navigation. Casting off on May 8, 1587, White carried with him more than a hundred settlers, including families this time—even his own pregnant daughter, Elinor Dare, and her husband, Ananias Dare—and possibly Puritan religious dissenters. First, though, Simon Fernandes piloted the flagship Lion to Roanoke so that they might check on Grenville's men and drop off Manteo and his companion Towaye, who had spent the last ten months in England. They arrived on July 22, but the soldiers weren't there. "We found none of them," White later wrote, "nor any sign that they had been there, saving only we found the bones of one of those fifteen, which the Savages had slain long before."
To make matters worse, one of Fernandes's sailors indicated that White's men were not welcome to reboard the Lion, that they should stay at Roanoke because "the Summer was farre spent." (Fernandes still hoped to make it back to the West Indies in time to loot Spanish ships.) This is one of the great controversies surrounding the Lost Colony. White wrote, referring to himself in the third person, that "it booted [suited] not the Governor to contend" with Fernandes, but the governor's refusal to argue the point—and to carry out Raleigh's explicit instructions for the colony—has long puzzled historians. James Horn has argued that the incident only makes sense if White and Fernandes actually agreed on making the change. White's later account, blaming Fernandes, was therefore intended to deflect his patron's anger over the change in plans.
Whatever the case, Roanoke was where the colonists would settle, at least for the moment. If they were nervous contemplating the apparent deaths of Grenville's men, they must have been more so after the death of White's adviser George Howe on July 28. Howe was found in the woods two miles from camp, dead from sixteen arrows and a gruesome beating. Three days later, White sailed south to meet with the Croatoans, who reported that both Grenville's men and Howe had been killed by Wanchese's Roanokes at Dasemunkepeuc. Manteo's people, meanwhile, promised to support the English on one condition: "that there might be some token or badge given them of us, whereby we might know them to be our friends, when we met them any where out of the Town or Island." It was a reasonable request, but one that would turn out to be tragically ironic.
White asked the Croatoans to spread the word in Ossomocomuck that the English were interested in talking peace if they heard from the Indians within seven days. They did not, so sometime after midnight on August 9, Manteo led White and some of his men across the water to Dasemunkepeuc. There they attacked the town only to discover, too late, that it was occupied by friendly Croatoans, and not enemy Roanokes. (Whatever tokens or badges the Croatoans might have worn were not visible in the dark of night.) Wanchese's people had apparently abandoned the town after killing Howe, and now White's party had accidentally killed the weroance Menatonon and a number of others. Although this turn of events "somewhat grieved Manteo," according to White, the Indian remained with the English; on August 13 he was baptized into the Church of England and christened lord of Roanoke and Dasemunkepeuc.
August 18, White's daughter gave birth to Virginia Dare, and on August 21, Fernandes and his sailors were finally finished unloading the three ships and prepared to set sail. All that remained was for the settlers to decide who among them would accompany Fernandes back to England to update Raleigh on all that had occurred. Remarkably, no one volunteered; instead, the settlers demanded that White—their leader and the most experienced among them when it came to navigating the perils and politics of Ossomocomuck—represent them. He later claimed that he at first refused; then he demanded that the settlers put their request in writing, with an emphasis on their "one minde" and White's reluctance—which they did on August 25. Two days later White was gone, never to see any of them again.
Queen Elizabeth had been fighting the Spanish on the seas and in the Netherlands, and now King Philip II was ready to launch an invasion of England. Despite a prohibition on all English ships leaving port, Raleigh managed to arrange for a two-ship relief mission that sailed on April 22, 1588, three months ahead of the fearsome Spanish Armada. But a fight at sea with the French left the ships limping back to England, and White was unable to arrange another mission until 1590, when four ships finally sailed for Roanoke. These were privateers; they carried with them no additional settlers or supplies and agreed only to drop off White at the colony. When a storm sank one of the ships upon arrival, they were even more anxious to move on, but on August 18, 1590, White and a company of sailors landed on Roanoke. It was his granddaughter's third birthday.
The camp was abandoned, with the word "CROATOAN" carved on a post. Three years earlier, White and the settlers had agreed that if they needed to move, they would indicate their destination in just such a way; if they were under duress, they would carve a cross above the letters. To White's relief, no such cross could be found. But it was hurricane season, and another fierce storm ruined his plans to sail to Manteo's island. Instead, the privateers, and White along with them, sailed on, first to the West Indies and then to England. The Lost Colonists, as they came to be known, were never found.
Legacy
Historians have debated the colonists' fate for centuries. Some have assumed that, like Grenville's soldiers, they were quickly killed. Others have found evidence of another scenario: that they survived for twenty years among the Chowanocs and Weapemeocs or perhaps even the Chesapeakes, assimilating into their culture. The settlers at Jamestown had heard rumors to this effect, and during the First Anglo-Powhatan War (1609–1614), the Virginia colony's secretary, William Strachey, suggested that the paramount chief Powhatan had ordered them killed. Presumably the chief worried that these former Roanoke English men and women in his midst might join with the new settlers, posing too great a threat. Captain John Smith and others looked but never found them.
The Lost Colony, meanwhile, has developed into one of the great legends of American history. Its story has traditionally focused on English discovery, apparent domination, and sudden disappearance. Virginia Dare has played an important role, too, as the first child born to English parents in North America. Her name is a reminder that the Virginia colony has its roots earlier than Jamestown and to the south. But Dare also serves to deflect attention from the Indians of Ossomocomuck, without whom Raleigh's colonists might never have survived at Roanoke. And although the legend revolves around the loss of white colonists, it's important to the note that the Indians of Ossomocomuck also largely disappeared, the victims of encroaching English and then American culture.
Time Line
June 1578 - Queen Elizabeth I grants Sir Humphrey Gilbert the right to explore North America and to plant colonies in those places not already claimed by other European powers. The grant expires in six years.
September 1578 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert, commanding 11 ships and 500 men, departs from Dartmouth, England, bound for North America. Three ships desert the mission even before weighing anchor, and Gilbert makes it only as far as the African coast. Walter Raleigh, in a ship piloted by the Azorean-born pirate Simon Fernandes, also turns back.
March 1580 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert dispatches a small reconnaissance mission, led by the Azorean-born pirate Simon Fernandes, to explore North America from New England to the mid-Atlantic coast. He returns early in the summer.
Summer 1580 - Walter Raleigh fights in Ireland.
Winter 1581–1582 - Walter Raleigh returns from Ireland to Queen Elizabeth's court, and over the next year his position there rises quickly, as does his personal wealth.
Summer 1582 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert raises money for a new North American voyage while actively recruiting Catholics to plant a colony there, possibly in the area of New England.
1583 - Early in the year, Queen Elizabeth I grants her court favorite, Walter Raleigh, use of Durham House on the Thames River. He uses the palatial mansion to gather experts to help him plan his colonizing ventures.
August 20, 1583 - In the midst of his colonizing venture, Sir Humphrey Gilbert leaves St. John's, Newfoundland, for Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. When his flagship sinks, Gilbert sails for England but is lost at sea.
April 27, 1584 - Under the aegis of Walter Raleigh, two ships (names unknown) leave Plymouth, England, for North America. One of the ships, weighing about 50 tons with about 45 soldiers and sailors, is commanded by Philip Amadas with Simon Fernandes as pilot. The other, a 30- to 40-ton pinnace, carries Captain Arthur Barlowe and about 30 men.
July 13, 1584 - The English exploration party led by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe goes ashore somewhere on the Outer Banks of present-day North Carolina, claiming the land "in the right of the Queens most excellent Majesty."
Mid-August 1584 - The English exploration party led by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe sails for England, taking along two high-ranking Algonquian-speaking Indians, Wanchese and Manteo.
Winter 1584–1585 - Queen Elizabeth I develops a strategy in her war against Spain. She will send an army to the Netherlands to fight on behalf of the Protestants, Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies to disrupt Spanish shipping, and colonists to Roanoke Island to establish a harbor for privateers.
December 1584 - Walter Raleigh introduces a bill in Parliament to confirm his royal patent for colonizing North America. Capitalizing on the enthusiastic report by Arthur Barlowe of the summer's voyage to America, Raleigh wins support from Sir Francis Drake and Sir Richard Grenville, even as the bill fails in the House of Lords.
January 6, 1585 - On the Twelfth Night of the Christmas holiday, Walter Raleigh is knighted at Greenwich, England. Shortly thereafter he assumes the title Lord and Governor of Virginia.
April 9, 1585 - An expedition of colonists led by Sir Richard Grenville and including the artist John White and the mathematician Thomas Hariot leaves England bound for Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina.
May 11, 1585 - Having separated from the fleet's other ships in a storm off Portugal, Sir Richard Grenville and the flagship Tiger drop anchor at the island of St. John's (present-day Puerto Rico), establishing a fortified camp at Mosquetal (present-day Guayanilla Bay). They stay for a few weeks, and John White paints the local flora and fauna.
June 26, 1585 - About a week after sighting the American mainland, Sir Richard Grenville and the Tiger land at Wococon Island, one of the barrier islands of the Outer Banks of present-day North Carolina.
June 29, 1585 - The Tiger, commanded by Sir Richard Grenville and piloted by Simon Fernandes, runs aground trying to navigate an inlet near Wococon Island. Much of the cargo is lost, leaving the hundreds of colonists with only twenty days' worth of food.
July 11, 1585 - Sir Richard Grenville leads a party of sixty men, including the Indian Manteo, on a weeklong trip to the mainland, where they visit the villages of Pomeiooc, Aquascogoc, and Secotan. John White paints the first and last of these, but a missing cup at Aquascogoc leads Philip Amadas to burn the town.
July 21, 1585 - Sir Richard Grenville meets with Manteo and the weroance Granganimeo, who give him permission to settle his colonists on the north end of Roanoke Island.
August 5, 1585 - A ship is sent back to England to update Sir Walter Raleigh on the colony's progress; it is soon followed by other ships.
August 25, 1585 - Sir Richard Grenville, aboard the Tiger, departs Roanoke for England, followed shortly by the Roebuck. On the return voyage, he captures the Spanish merchant ship Santa Maria de San Vicente, worth around £300,000.
Autumn 1585 - A fleet of ships commanded by Bernard Drake and Amias Preston, intended to resupply the colonists on Roanoke Island, does not arrive as planned. Unknown to the colonists, it has been diverted to the war in the Netherlands.
October–November 1585 - An expedition of Roanoke colonists, likely led by Philip Amadas, departs for the Chesapeake Bay, eventually visiting the Chesapeakes' capital of Skicoak and several villages on the Eastern Shore. It is unclear whether one or both of John White and Thomas Hariot go along.
February–March 1586 - The English colonists return to Roanoke Island after their expedition to the Chesapeake Bay. In their absence, the Roanoke Indians have suffered from disease (brought by the English) and famine, straining relations with the remaining English.
Spring 1586 - The Roanoke Indian weroance Wingina ritually changes his name to Pemisapan. He relocates his people to the mainland town of Dasemunkepeuc and cuts off the food supply to the English colonists on Roanoke Island.
June 1, 1586 - Ralph Lane and twenty-six men, including the Indian Manteo, march into Dasemunkepeuc. Philip Amadas shoots the weroance Pemisapan, who pretends to be dead before fleeing into the woods. The colonist Edward Nugent gives chase and returns with the chief's head.
June 8, 1586 - A fleet of twenty-three ships led by Sir Francis Drake, which had been harassing the Spanish in the West Indies and Florida, arrives at the Outer Banks to resupply the colonists at Roanoke Island. A three-day hurricane scatters the ships, and Ralph Lane decides to abandon the colony.
July 1586 - The English colonists from Roanoke Island arrive at Portsmouth, England. At the same time, Sir Richard Grenville, with six ships and 200 colonists, arrives at Roanoke to find it abandoned. He and his men stay a few weeks then return to England, leaving behind a garrison of fifteen men, who are soon killed by Indians.
May 8, 1587 - Three ships and approximately 150 settlers and crew sail for America from Plymouth, England. John White is governor of the expedition that plans to stop off at Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina before establishing the "Cittie of Raleigh" on the Chesapeake Bay.
July 22, 1587 - After landing on the Outer Banks of present-day North Carolina, John White and forty men sail to Roanoke Island to check on a garrison of soldiers left there the year before. They find only the bones of one of the men.
July 23, 1587 - John White and his men travel to the north end of Roanoke Island in search of a garrison of fifteen soldiers left behind the year before. They find nothing.
July 28, 1587 - George Howe, an adviser to John White, leader of the Roanoke colony, is found dead about two miles from camp. He has been shot by sixteen arrows and beaten.
July 31, 1587 - A contingent from the English colony at Roanoke travels to meet with the Croatoan Indians. They learn that their fellow settler George Howe, along with a garrison of fifteen soldiers, has been killed by Roanoke Indians living at Dasemunkepeuc.
August 9, 1587 - A party of Roanoke colonists, led by the Indian Manteo, attacks the town of Dasemunkepeuc in the early morning hours. Instead of killing enemy Roanoke Indians, however, they kill friendly Croatoans, including the weroance Menatonon.
August 13, 1587 - Manteo, a Croatoan Indian who has visited England twice and assisted the English settlers at Roanoke, is baptized into the Church of England and christened lord of Roanoke and Dasemunkepeuc.
August 18, 1587 - Elinor White Dare gives birth to Virginia Dare on Roanoke Island. Elinor White Dare's father is the colony's governor, John White, and her husband, Ananias Dare, is one of White's advisers. The baby is the first born to English parents in North America.
August 21, 1587 - Three ships are finished unloading and pilot Simon Fernandes is ready to set sail for England from the colony at Roanoke Island. First, however, the settlers need to designate a representative to accompany Fernandes with the mission of updating Sir Walter Raleigh on the colony. No one volunteers.
August 24, 1587 - Virginia Dare, daughter of Elinor White Dare and Ananias Dare, is christened at the English colony on Roanoke Island.
August 25, 1587 - The English colonists on Roanoke Island put in writing their request that their governor, John White, return to England as their representative in order to update Sir Walter Raleigh on the colony. They emphasize White's reluctance and their unanimity.
August 27, 1587 - John White sails for England from the colony at Roanoke Island, leaving behind 117 settlers, including his daughter and granddaughter. He will never see them again.
April 22, 1588 - Two small ships, the Brave and the Roe, plus John White and fifteen settlers, sail from Bideford, England, on a mission to resupply the English colony at Roanoke Island. The two ships are separated and, after a fight with the French, are forced to return to England.
March 20, 1590 - Four English privateering ships set sail from England on a mission to drop off John White at the English colony at Roanoke Island. White had left the colonists there three years ago and was delayed by the Spanish Armada; he returns with no passengers or supplies.
August 16, 1590 - John White arrives back at the Outer Banks in an attempt to rejoin the English colonists at Roanoke Island, including his daughter and granddaughter. He has been gone for three years.
August 17, 1590 - A storm sinks one of the ships anchored at the Outer Banks, killing the captain and six crewmen. The ships are there to drop off John White at the English colony at Roanoke Island after a three-year absence.
August 18, 1590 - John White and a company of sailors go ashore at Roanoke Island. Hoping to be reunited with his granddaughter on her third birthday, White instead finds the colony abandoned. The word "CROATOAN" is carved into a post, suggesting the colonists may have relocated to that island.
October 1590 - After being unable to find the 117 colonists he left at Roanoke Island three years before, John White returns to England. He will never see his daughter or granddaughter again.
Further Reading
Horn, James. A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. New York: Basic Books, 2010.
Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony. Savage, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1984.
Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. New York: Penguin, 2002.
Oberg, Michael Leroy. The Head in Edward Nugent's Hand: Roanoke's Forgotten Indians. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
Quinn, David Beers. The Roanoke Voyages 1584–1590: Documents to Illustrate the English Voyages to North America under the Patent Granted to Walter Raleigh in 1584. 2 vols. London, England: The Hakluyt Society, 1955.
Quinn, David Beers. Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584–1590. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
This entry was written by Wolfe, Brendan . "The Roanoke Colonies." Encyclopedia Virginia. Ed. Caitlin Newman. 22 Apr. 2011. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. 19 Apr. 2011
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