On this day in Tudor history, 24th October 1590, John White, the governor of the Roanoke Colony, returned to England after failing to find the lost colonists, which included his daughter, Ellinor (Elenora), his son-in-law, Ananias Dare, and his granddaughter, Virginia Dare.
But what happened to these colonists and what did the word CROATOAN carved onto a post mean?
Find out all about the Roanoke Colony and the theories regarding the disappearance of all 115 people, including the very latest research, in today's talk.
Also on this day in Tudor history, 24th October 1537, Queen Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII, died at Hampton Court Palace twelve days after giving birth to a son who would grow up to be King Edward VI.
In last year’s video, I shared contemporary accounts of Jane Seymour's illness and death, as well as details of how her remains were prepared for burial and where they were buried:
Also on this day in history:
- 1521 – Death of Robert Fayrfax (Fairfax), church musician and composer, in St Albans. He was buried in the abbey there. Fayrfax was a Gentleman of the Chapel of the households of both Henry VII and Henry VIII, and attended the 1521 Field of Cloth of Gold. His works included the Magnificat Regale, Salve regina, six masses and English part-songs.
- 1525 – Death of Thomas Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre of Gilsland, from a fall from his horse in the English borders. He was buried at Lanercost Priory, in the Dacre family mausoleum. Dacre fought at the Battle of Bosworth on the side of Richard III, but was able to earn Henry VII's trust and favour afterwards. Henry VII put Dacre in charge of the English west march and he was active in the borders, until he was imprisoned in early 1525 after trouble in the borders. He was fined and released in September 1525.
- 1545 – Death of Sir John Baldwin, judge and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He was buried at Aylesbury.
- 1572 – Death of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby and Privy Councillor during the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I, at Lathom House in Lancashire. He was buried at the parish church in Ormskirk.
- 1589 – Death of Christopher St Lawrence, 7th Baron Howth and an active participant in Irish politics. He was buried in Howth Abbey in Dublin.
Transcript:
On this day in Tudor history, 24th October 1590, John White, the governor of the Roanoke Colony, returned to England after failing to find the lost colonists, which included his daughter, Ellinor (Elenora), his son-in-law, Ananias Dare, and his granddaughter, Virginia Dare.
If you heard my 18th August talk last year, you may remember that Virginia was the first child born to English settlers in the New World and that she was born in the Roanoke Colony, in what is now North Carolina, in August 1587, just days after the arrival of the colonists. Her grandfather, governor John White, had to return to England for supplies at the end of that year, but events such as the Spanish Armada conspired against him and he wasn’t able to return until three years later, in August 1590. As I explained in my previous talk, when he arrived at the colony, all 115 people he’d left behind had disappeared and all that was left was the word Croatoan carved onto a post. Now, in 1587, when he was about to leave, White had instructed the colonists of Roanoke to leave a message, carving their new location on a tree or post for him to find, or carving the Maltese Cross symbol if they were attacked, So, did the word Croatoan mean that they had moved to Croatoan, now Cape Hatteras, which was 50 miles to the south of the colony, or were they referring to the Croatoan Indians? Bad weather and events conspired against White once more and he was forced to return to England in October 1590 before he’d been able to search for his family and the other colonists, and solve the mystery of this lost colony.
The lost colony is still a mystery, with archaeological digs in the Hatteras area finding 16th and 17th century artefacts, but nothing definitive. But then in 2012, a watercolour map thought to have been worked on by John White, from the British Library collection was examined. On the map, 50 miles from the Roanoke Colony was a patch which careful examination of the map found to be covering a blue and red star, which they thought might symbolise a fort. It’s not known why this location was covered up with a patch, but archaeology in this area found artefacts like guns, a nail, and English pottery which was not sent to the Americas after 1624. Again, nothing definitive, but the artefacts combined with legends regarding a pale-skinned and blue-eyed native in the area, have led to the theory that the colonists may have split up and been assimilated by neighbouring tribes, some relocating to the spot marked with the star and others to Hatteras, or Croatoan, as it was known.
Just this month, there have been news articles about more archaeological finds in what is now Bertie County, North Carolina, with English pottery pieces dating back to the 1580s being found there, pieces of jugs and pots, for example. The excavation area comprises 72 digs, each covering an area of 1.24 square metres, and Phil Evans, president of the First Colony Foundation, said that the finds in the area suggest that about a dozen people, from at least one Roanoke family, lived there, and possibly with their servants. Here's a link to the news article on these archaological finds - https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/roanoke-colony-theory-0014417
Other theories include the colonists being killed in an attack, them dying of disease or in extreme weather.
Will we ever know for sure what happened to the lost colony? I hope so!