John White (–) was an English colonial governor, explorer, artist, and cartographer. White was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville in the first attempt to colonise Roanoke Island in 1585, acting as artist and mapmaker to the expedition. He would most famously briefly serve as the governor of the second attempt to found Roanoke Colony on the same island in 1587 and discover the colonists had mysteriously vanished.
During his time at Roanoke Island, he made several watercolour sketches of the surrounding landscape and the native Algonquian peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard; all of the surviving original watercolours are now preserved in the print room of the British Museum.
In 1587, White became governor of Sir Walter Raleigh's failed attempt at a permanent settlement on Roanoke Island, known to history as the "Lost Colony". This was the earliest effort to establish a permanent English colony in the New World. White's granddaughter Virginia Dare was the first English child born in North America. In late 1587, White returned to England for supplies. The return expedition was delayed due to various reasons, including the Spanish Armada. Governor White finally returned to Roanoke Island in August 1590, but found the colony had been long deserted.
After the failure of the colony, White retired to Raleigh's estates in Ireland, reflecting upon the "evils and unfortunate events" which had ruined his hopes in the New World, though never giving up hope that his daughter and granddaughter were still alive.
Early life John White's exact date of birth is unknown but it seems likely he was born sometime in the 1530s–1540s.John White at ncpedia.org . Retrieved March 2011 In 1587, the arms granted to him were those of the White family of Truro, Cornwall. So, White was Cornish in some capacity, though the place of his birth is unclear. White was parishioner of St Martin, Ludgate in London in the late 1560s. In 1566, he married Tomasyn Cooper; with whom he had a son, Thomas, who died young, and a daughter, Eleanor. Little is known of White's training as an artist but it is possible that he apprenticed as an illustrator under a London master.
Career
In the late sixteenth century, efforts to establish an English colony in the New World began to gain momentum, and White soon became an enthusiastic supporter. In 1577, White may have accompanied Martin Frobisher to search for precious metals and a northwest passage to Asia on his Baffin Island and Greenland expeditions. Despite this, White was not mentioned by name. His drawings from this period were of the lands and people encountered on the voyage. In 1585, White accompanied the expedition led by Sir Ralph Lane to attempt to found the first English colony in North America. White was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh as Sir Richard Grenville's artist-illustrator on his first voyage to the New World; working closely with the scientist Thomas Harriot, he served as mapmaker and artist to the expedition, which encountered considerable difficulties and returned to England in 1586.
Gentleman artist In 1585, White had been commissioned to "draw to life" the inhabitants of the New World and their surroundings.Article in Smithsonian Magazine by Abigal Tucker, December 2008. Retrieved March 2011 During White's time at Roanoke Island, he completed numerous watercolour drawings of the surrounding landscape and native peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern Seaboard, and predate the first body of "discovery voyage art" created in the late 18th century by the artists who sailed with Captain James Cook. They represent the sole-surviving visual record of the Native American inhabitants encountered by England's first settlers.
White's enthusiasm for watercolour was unusual – most contemporary painters preferred to use oil-based paints.Milton, p. 199 White's watercolours would soon become a sensation in Europe; it was not long before the watercolours were engraved by the Flemish master engraver Theodor de Bry.Milton, p. 200 Through the medium of print, the illustrations became widely known and distributed; they were published in 1590 under the title America.
Governor of the Roanoke colony
After Lane's colonists returned to England in 1586, Sir Walter Raleigh, who held the land patent for the proposed English colony of Virginia, tasked White with the job of organising a new settlement in the Chesapeake Bay area, one which would be self-sustaining and which would include women and children. During 1586, White was able to persuade 113 prospective colonists to join Raleigh's expedition, including his daughter Eleanor and his son-in-law Ananias Dare, recently married at St Bride's Church in Fleet Street.Morgan, p. 77 His efforts did not go unrewarded; on 7 January 1587, Raleigh named "John White of London Gentleman, to be the chief Governor" of the new colony. White, with thirteen others, were incorporated under the name of "The Governor and Assistants of the Cities of Raleigh of Virginia".Queen's College, Oxford, MSS 137](a). On the occasion, he was granted arms with eight-quarters. The 1st contained his new arms: Ermine, on a canton Gules, a fusil Argent. The 2nd contained the ancient arms of White of Truro. The remaining six quarters contained the arms of some of his “Assistants”. This marshalling, other than being unorthodox, produced minute detail unsuitable for the New World Tapestry canvas. Therefore White (ancient) of Truro is depicted (Poptarts of 1587).
Arrival at Roanoke
In May 1587, White's colonists sailed for Virginia in the Lion. They were guided by the Portuguese navigator Simon Fernandes, the same pilot who had led the 1585 expedition and who was given by his fellow sailors the unhappy nickname of "the swine."Milton, p. 201 The settlers' chosen destination was not Roanoke but the Chesapeake Bay. But, upon reaching Roanoke in late July, and allowing the colonists to disembark, Fernandez refused to let White's men re-board the ship.
According to White's journal, Fernandez's deputy "called to the sailors in the pinesse, charging them not to bring any of the planters [settlers] back again, but leave them on the island."Milton, p. 215 Faced with what amounted to a mutiny by his navigator, White appears to have backed down and acquiesced in this sudden change of plan. Despite the governor's protests, Fernandez held that "summer was farre spent [summer was almost over], wherefore hee would land all the planters in no other place."Milton, p. 216
This second colony at Roanoke set about repairing the structures left behind in 1585. They also searched for the fifteen men left behind by the previous expedition, but found only bones.Milton, p. 217 From an early stage there were tensions with the local Algonquian Indians, though initially things went well. White quickly made contact with friendly natives led by Chief Manteo, who explained to him that the lost fifteen had been killed by hostile Secotan, Aquascogoc, and Dasamongueponke warriors,Milton, p. 218 choosing a time and place of attack "of great advantage to the savages."Milton, p. 220
On 8 August 1587, White led a dawn attack on the Dasamongueponkes that went disastrously wrong. White and his soldiers entered the Dasamongueponke village in the morning "so early that it was yet dark,"Miller, Lee, p. 131. Retrieved April 2011 but mistakenly attacked a group of hitherto friendly Indians, killing one and wounding many. "We were deceived," wrote White in his journal, "for the savages were our friends." Henceforth, relations with the local tribes would steadily deteriorate.Milton, p. 235
Virginia Dare
On 18 August 1587, there was happier news – White became a grandfather. "Eleanor, daughter to the governor and wife to Ananias Dare, one of the assistants, was delivered of a daughter in Roanoke."Milton, p. 239 The child was healthy and "was christened there the Sunday following, and because this child was the first Christian born in Virginia,Modern-day North Carolina she was named Virginia."
White's return to England However, the colonists' food supplies soon began to grow short, and in late 1587 the settlers pressed White to return to England "for the better and sooner obtaining of supplies, and other necessaries."Milton, p. 240 Because the colony had been deposited in Roanoke rather than the Chesapeake area, supply ships from England ignorant of Fernandez's change of plan would most likely not land in Roanoke at all, and the settlement might not survive the coming winter.Miller, Lee, p. 132. Retrieved April 2011 White was reluctant to abandon his colony, anxious that his enemies in England "would not spare to slander [him] falsely" should he leave,Milton, p. 241 and worried that his "stuff and goods might be spoiled and most of it pilfered away." Eventually the colonists agreed to stand surety for White's belongings and he was prevailed upon to sail, "much against his will," to seek help.Milton, p. 243
Misfortune struck White's return to England from the beginning. The anchor of the flyboat on which White was quartered could not be raised, and many crew members were severely injured during the attempt.Milton, p. 244 Worse, their journey home was delayed by "scarce and variable winds" followed by "a storm at the north-east," and many sailors starved or died of scurvy.Milton, p. 245 On 16 October 1587 the desperate crew, at last, landed in Smerwicke, in the west of Ireland, and White was finally able to make his way back to Southampton.Milton, p. 246
Spanish Armada
Further bad news awaited White on his return to England. Just two weeks previously Queen Elizabeth I had issued a general "stay of shipping," preventing any ships from leaving English shores.Milton, p. 247 The reason was the "invincible fleetes made by the King of Spain, joined with the power of the Pope, for the invading of England" – the Spanish Armada. White's patron Sir Walter Raleigh attempted to provide ships to rescue the colony but he was over-ruled by the Queen.Milton, p. 248
Brave and the Roe
In early 1588, White was able to scrape together a pair of small pinnaces, the Brave and the Roe, which were unsuitable for military service and could be spared for the expedition to Roanoke. Unluckily for White, they were barely suited for the Atlantic crossing and the governor endured further bad luck as the ships were intercepted by French pirates, who "playd extreemely upon us with their shot," hitting White (to his great embarrassment) "in the side of the buttoke."Milton, p. 249. White and his crew escaped to England with their lives, but "they robbed us of all our victuals, powder, weapons and provision," and the journey to Virginia had to be abandoned.Milton, p. 250 By this stage White appears to have formed the view that he was born under "an unlucky star."
Return to the "Lost Colony"
Finally, in March 1590, with the immediate threat of a Spanish invasion by now abated, Raleigh was able to equip White's rescue expedition. Two ships, the Hopewell and the Moonlight set sail for Roanoke.Milton, p. 257 The return journey was prolonged by extensive privateering and several sea battles, and White's eventual landing at the Outer Banks was further imperilled by poor weather.Milton, p. 260 The landing was hazardous and was beset by bad conditions and adverse currents. During the landing on Roanoke, of the mariners who accompanied White, "seven of the chiefest were drowned."Milton, p. 262