Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America (20 page)

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Authors: Giles Milton

BOOK: Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America
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Dare’s indiscretion left White untroubled and he willingly consented to him marrying his daughter, Eleanor. The couple lived in London’s Fleet Street, close to St. Bride’s, and young Eleanor had recently fallen pregnant, a situation that would have deterred most women from a seven-week voyage to an unknown wilderness. Childbirth, after all, was always dangerous and usually painful, and there was little to comfort the woman in labour. Many still relied on traditional methods of pain relief, such as swallowing a spider coated in treacle, while the devout and superstitious pinned their hopes on religious relics, objects of devotion, and even church bell ropes. Had Eleanor stayed in London, she might well have borrowed the ropes from St. Bride’s to wrap around her aching belly; but she insisted on accompanying her husband to America, and the couple began preparations for the long voyage.
John White’s other governing assistants remain a mystery, known only by their names: Roger Baylye, Christopher Cooper, John Sampson, Thomas Steevens, William Fullwood, Roger Pratt, Dyonise Harvey, John Nicholls, George Howe, and James Plat. None of them had any social status in England, being without lineage or land; they probably came from London’s artisan class, involved in skilled trade.
 
Eleanor Dare insisted on sailing to America while pregnant. Childbirth was as dangerous in London as on board ship, and many still used traditional remedies for labour pains, such as swallowing treacle-coated spiders
This troubled Ralegh, who wanted his self-styled Cittie of Ralegh to be ruled by men of standing. To this end, he dreamed up an inspired stunt which would automatically make them gentlemen and give them a lineage. He approached the chief officer of arms, William Dethick, an unscrupulous individual who sold blazons and crests to anyone who gave him a sufficient bribe. Ralegh offered golden rewards if he devised coats of arms for John White and his twelve assistants, a task that Dethick accomplished with aplomb, linking even the lowest-born assistants to ancient and arms-bearing gentility. He paid particular attention to the governor’s coat of arms, producing a whimsical shield that showed descent from no fewer than eight distinguished White families. It was a complete fiction, but none of this troubled Ralegh, for the exercise was little more than a publicity exercise that would assure potential investors that his colony was run by men of quality. He probably presented the arms at a public ceremony in Durham House, declaring—in the words of the grant—that the twelve gentlemen were remarkable personages who should “in all tymes and throwgh all ages be honoured, rewarded and, [in] their remembrance by sondry monuments, preserved.”
Ralegh had not forgotten the ever loyal Manteo during the flurry of activity in those early weeks of January. Manteo had supported his project from the very outset and—increasingly anglicised—had come to see an English presence on his land as both desirable and beneficial. He had been the catalyst for Lane’s colony, providing much of the information that had allowed the 1585 expedition to set sail, and had played a critical role in ensuring the survival of Ralph Lane and his men. Sir Walter now decided to reward him for this loyalty by making him a feudal ruler in the New World, entrusting him with the island of Roanoke and giving him the title of “lord therof … in reward of his faithfull service.” Although Ralegh had
no intention of settling his new colony on Roanoke, he did not wish to abandon his hold over that stretch of coastline and almost certainly promised to supply Manteo with troops—perhaps the fifteen men currently serving under Master Coffin.
Manteo’s appointment was truly extraordinary—and shocking to many—for Ralegh was effectively making him his local governor, subject to
Weroanza
Elizabeth but with important powers over the Indians on his land. To give such responsibility to a “savage” sat uneasily alongside the prejudice and intolerance of Elizabethan England and proved to both the court and populace that Ralegh was quite content to fly in the face of the prevailing mood. Not everyone greeted the news with mute acceptance; it was probably the objections of some of the more fusty courtiers that led to Ralegh’s making Manteo’s baptism a condition of his governorship—a ceremony that was to take place on his arrival at Roanoke.
Attracting prospective colonists to Chesapeake Bay proved far more difficult than attracting governors. The Roanoke settlers had brought much damaging publicity to Ralegh’s 1585 enterprise, and their tales of munching acorns and berries had lodged in people’s minds. But this was not all that hindered John White in his drive to recruit settlers. Throughout England, hundreds of agents were searching for colonists for the new plantations in Ireland, making a particular effort to attract artisans and farmers—the very people White needed for his settlement. Given the choice between Ireland and America, few would hesitate to choose the former, which, for those living in the West Country, was less than two days’ journey.
White knew that he could not compete with these agents and avoided recruiting in the countryside, preferring instead to bang his colonial drum in the streets and alleys of London. This was a wise move, for the overcrowded capital was such an unsanitary and plague-ridden “dunghyll” that a great many people were keen to escape. The city’s diseased population already stood at around 90,000 and was expanding with every month that passed. The majority lived “within the bars”—the city’s twenty-six wards—but a growing
underclass had spilled out into the suburbs, where they were packed like herrings into stinking cellars in Southwark and Hounditch, the “places of the begging poor.” Many were only too willing to chance their luck in America, especially as it gave them the opportunity to escape the rogues, bawds, and cutpurses who stalked the streets at night. The records of violent crime in Aldgate, one of the poorer areas of town, make for horrific reading. Stabbings, knifings, and child murders were so commonplace that the courts had grown weary of the endless hearings. One “murderous strumpett cast hir child into a privie,” drowning it in effluent, while others “smothered” their victims to death in the course of a robbery. Dozens were killed in knife fights. There were few among the poor who died of infirmity or old age.
White could offer the honest citizens of such areas the chance to escape forever. The reason that people listened to him was that he was offering something extremely attractive: a “temperate and holesome” climate in a disease- and crime-free land. He could justifiably trumpet the facts that Lane’s colonists had returned in rude health and that “but foure of our whole company … died all the yeere.” This was a remarkable achievement in the eyes of the poorer citizens of London. Quite apart from the plague, which regularly swept through the unsanitary backstreets of the capital, many illnesses afflicted the weak and malnourished. The biggest killers were consumption and ague, followed by the scouring flux, smallpox, worms, dropsy, scurvy, colic, pleurisy, jaundice—the list was endless. “Bursten” or ruptured haemorrhoids claimed a surprisingly large number of victims—they quickly got infected—while “bursten” scrotums reaped a similarly grisly toll. Those who underwent surgery for such ailments rarely survived the rusty blades and infected hacksaws. Sir William Wenter entrusted his “bowells” to the surgeons after years of painful gallstones. Just hours after his operation, he “endid this lyfe … beinge cutt of the collick and the stone.” It is scarcely surprising that depression was on the increase and an ever growing number of people were
recorded as having died from “some inward griefe”—the polite expression for suicide.
White promised his settlers more than life in a disease-free land. He also offered them an escape from the “corruption, whoredom [and] drunkeness” that were ubiquitous in London, a city that had “more sins than Ninevah contains.” Bankside was particularly notorious for its “stews” or brothels, and whoring was a popular pastime among high-spirited youths, even though the majority of strumpets were diseased with the “French pox” or syphilis. Whoring went hand in hand with drunkenness, and crawling from tavern to tavern enjoyed widespread popularity. It was a dangerous pastime, even for those with cavernous bellies, for there were hostelries on every alley and thoroughfare. One short stretch of Southwark High Street, particularly popular with revellers, boasted no fewer than twenty taverns. Drinking bouts were often followed by rowdy games of football, “a bloody and murthering practice” that the authorities were forced to ban when gangs of youths went on the rampage, smashing shop fronts and kicking passersby.
White worked hard to assure potential colonists that his settlement on Chesapeake Bay would be better organised than the disasterous experiment on Roanoke. It had become clear to both him and Ralegh that any long-term colony would have to be a farming community, largely self-sufficient, that would in time produce such bumper harvests of tobacco and grain that surplus crops could be shipped back to England. The fact that he was recruiting the majority of his settlers from London was not necessarily a problem; many city dwellers grew their own vegetables in plots and gardens and would bring with them at least some knowledge of self-sufficiency.
A few men signed up immediately, but to the waverers Ralegh offered an added incentive. He was extremely “liberall … in giving and granting land there,” promising every colonist no less than 500 acres, irrespective of any financial investment, and guaranteeing that it would be fertile farmland. This was a veritable windfall, for 500 acres was far larger than most English farms, and served to
arouse great interest in the project. Ralegh further heartened potential colonists by assuring them that the settlement was being built as a safe haven for English privateering vessels. There was no question of them having to cut their ties with England, since ships would be coming and going all year round. These would bring with them essential supplies and, in good years, carry the surplus foodstuffs back to England. Enterprising settlers were likely to get rich.
White hoped to sail in the spring, giving him just three months to recruit his colonists. His target was to attract about 150—both men and women—but this proved difficult in the time available. By April only 100 had signed up. Many were single men or fathers who elected to leave their wives and children in London until they had established themselves in the new land. But White did score a few notable successes, persuading some fourteen families to set sail, along with seventeen women, several of whom were single. These may well have been wives of the men left behind by Grenville, or even the spouses of the three men inadvertently left behind by Drake in 1586. There were also several young boys with no apparent relatives to accompany them.
The drawback of recruiting in London was immediately apparent: there were simply not enough country folk to contribute a wider experience and knowledge to the colony. Settler Mark Bennett was a husbandman and William Berde a yeoman—both of whom would bring usefull skills—but they were joined by few others from the farming fraternity. William Nicholes appears to have been a tailor and Thomas Hewet a lawyer. William Brown may have been the London goldsmith of the same name; if he hoped to find himself fashioning jewellery out of nodules of gold, he was likely to be disappointed.
The colonists came from all across the social spectrum. John Spendlove described himself as a “gentleman”; John Hynde and William Clement had both served time in Colchester prison. Roanoke veterans were conspicuous by their absence. Only James Lassie and John Wright were willing to return to America to try their luck on a second attempt.
 
John White needed farmers for his colony. He recruited in London’s streets and markets, such as Eastcheap, where he found city dwellers with some knowledge of country life

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