Bartholomew Gilbert: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Early 1600s mariner and explorer}}

{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}

{{distinguish|Bartholomew Gosnold}}

[[Captain (nautical)|Captain]] '''Bartholomew Gilbert''' was an English [[sailor|mariner]] who in 1602 served as co-captain on the [[Age of Exploration|first recorded European expedition]] to [[Cape Cod]]. His decisions resulted in that expedition's failure to establish a colony there.<ref>[http://www.humilitypress.org/a_little_room/prosperos_hen.htm "Prospero's Hen"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080807140939/http://www.humilitypress.org/a_little_room/prosperos_hen.htm |date=7 August 2008 }}; Gookin, Warner F. and Barbour, Philip L., Bartholomew Gosnold: Discoverer and Planter, Archon Books, Hamden CT, 1963.</ref>

Gilbert served aboard ''The Concord'', a small [[Barque|bark]] which sailed out of [[Dartmouth, Devon]], to establish a colony in [[New England]], which was then known as Northern Virginia and was considered a part of the [[Colony of Virginia]]. The ship's captain was [[Bartholomew Gosnold]], an experienced seaman who had sailed with [[Walter Raleigh]] and who was related to Gilbert on Gosnold's father's side.<ref>[http://www.humilitypress.org/a_little_room/prosperos_hen.htm "Prospero's Hen"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080807140939/http://www.humilitypress.org/a_little_room/prosperos_hen.htm |date=7 August 2008 }}</ref>

''The Concord'' had 32 men on board and sailed due west from the [[Azores]] to New England, arriving in May 1602 at [[Cape Elizabeth]] in [[Maine]] at the [[43rd parallel north|latitude 43 degrees]] and skirted the coastline for several days before anchoring in [[York Harbor]], Maine, on14 May 1602. The next day, they sailed into [[Provincetown Harbor]] and named it [[Cape Cod, Massachusetts|Cape Cod]].<ref name="Gabriel Archer's diary">{{cite book | title=GREAT EPOCHS IN AMERICAN HISTORY: The Relation of Captain Gosnold's Voyage| url=http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/preservation/epochs/vol2/pg38.htm| last=Archer| first=Gabriel| year=1912| pages=38| editor=Ed. Frances Healey| publisher=Funk & Wagnalls Co.}}</ref>

Following the coastline for several days, they discovered and touched at [[Martha's Vineyard]], entered [[Buzzard's Bay]], which they called Gosnold's Hope, and established a small post on [[Elizabeth's Island]], which is now called [[Cuttyhunk|Cuttyhunk Island]] and is part of the town of [[Gosnold, Massachusetts|Gosnold]]. In nineteen days they built a fort and storehouse on an islet and began to trade with the [[Massachusett]] in [[fur]]s, skins, and the [[sassafras]] plant. They sowed wheat, [[barley]], and [[peas]], and in fourteen days the young plants had sprung nine inches and more.<ref name="humilitypress.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.humilitypress.org/a_little_room/prosperos_hen.htm |title=Prospero's Hen |accessdate=2008-07-09 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080807140939/http://www.humilitypress.org/a_little_room/prosperos_hen.htm |archivedate=7 August 2008}} Gookin, Warner F. and Barbour, Philip L., Bartholomew Gosnold: Discoverer and Planter, Archon Books, Hamden CT, 1963.</ref>

They planned to leave Gosnold and some of the crew to start a colony while Gilbert returned to [[Devon]] for more supplies. However, when it became known that Gilbert had provided insufficient provisions for the winter; their provisions, after division, would have lasted only six weeks. All hands decided to return to [[England]] with him. They made a very short voyage of five weeks and landed at [[Exmouth, Devon|Exmouth]] on 23 July. Their freight realised a great profit, the sassafras alone selling for £336 a ton.<ref name="humilitypress.org"/>

A notable account of the voyage, written by [[John Brereton]], one of the gentlemen adventurers, was published in 1602,<ref>Brereton, ''A Briefe Relation of the Description of Elizabeth's Ile, and some others towards the North Part of Virginie''.</ref> and this helped in popularising subsequent voyages of exploration and colonisation of the northeast seaboard of North America. A second account by [[Gabriel Archer]] was not published until over 20 years later. Although the mission failed to establish a colony, the attempt is commemorated by the [[New World Tapestry]] and Gilbert is one of the people represented thereon.<ref name="Parsons">{{cite news |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2004/09/27/powwow_event_feature.shtml |title= Art and Exhibitions: Setting sail for a pow-wow |author= Caron Parsons |work= [[BBC News]] |date= 27 September 2004 |quote= Helping to illustrate the story is the New World Tapestry; which, created in the [[West Country]], is a detailed record of the early colonial period and the largest such embroidery in the world. }}</ref>

In July 1603, Gilbert returned to [[the Americas]]. Setting anchor in [[Chesapeake Bay]], Gilbert and four crewmen went ashore to search for the missing members of the [[Roanoke Colony]].<ref name="HudsonTesser1994">{{cite book|author1=Charles M. Hudson|author2=Carmen Chaves Tesser|title=The Forgotten Centuries: Indians and Europeans in the American South, 1521–1704|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qNZgglBKi8AC|year=1994|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-1654-3|page=360}}</ref> They subsequently ran afoul of and were killed by a group of [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquians]] on29 July.<ref name="Zandt2008">{{cite book|last=Zandt|first=Cynthia J. Van|title=Brothers Among Nations: The Pursuit of Intercultural Alliances in Early America, 1580-1660|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_2Kt4KZIlwIC&pg=PA50|year=2008|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199720552|page=50}}</ref>

The date of this historic landing is represented in the [[Seal of Northampton County, Virginia]]. Not until 1607 did the English successfully establish [[Jamestown, Virginia]], their first colony in what is now the United States.<ref>[http://www.apva.org/history/timeline.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051122024429/http://www.apva.org/history/timeline.html |date=22 November 2005 }} "A Timeline of Events and References Leading up to and through the founding of Jamestown"</ref><ref>[http://www.britainusa.com/sections/articles_show_nt1.asp?d=0&i=41029&L1=&L2=&a=41756] Historical Timeline of the Founding of [[Jamestown, Virginia]];</ref><ref>[[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's, Newfoundland]], in what is now Canada, was founded shortly before this.</ref>

*Gookin, Warner F. and Barbour, Phillip ''Bartholomew Gosnold, Discoverer and Planter'', Hamden, CT: Archon, 1963 [http://www.gosnold.info/Gentlemen%20of%20the%20Voyage.html]

*Quinn, David B & Quinn, Alison M, ''The English New England Voyages 1602–1608'', The Hakluyt Society Series II, Vol 161, 1983.

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[[Category:17th-century English explorers]]

[[Category:English explorers of North America]]

[[Category:People from Cuttyhunk Island]]