Thanks for the welcome Jim.I checked out the Celebrities string, helped a lot. Looking forward to reading Neil's paper.I am just beginning the Pocahontas research. It grows out of research I've been doing on the arrival of the first Africans in a British colony in North America. The man o war ship, "Treasurer," owned by Robert Rich, earl of Warwick and another corsair named the "White Lion" robbed a Spanish-Portuguese slave ship in July 1619 in the Bay of Campeche and took about 60 Africans which they delivered to Jamestown and Bermuda. They were the first AFricans to enter an English NA colony.This same ship, the Treasurer, was used by Samuel Argall to kidnap Pocahontas in 1612 or so. The ship was also used to kick the French out of their colony north of Virginia. Additionally the Treasurer also forced the Dutch in New Amsterdam (New York City) to swear allegiance to King James. I am searching for the remains of the Treasurer and the White Lion. The Treasurer supposedly rotted in a creek in Virginia. The White Lion was said to have sunk within sight of the Black Pagoda offshore of Orissa, IndianLord Rich was a Puritan pirate who warred against Spanish ships in the Caribbean, much in the vein of other English corsairs. He had arranged for his man Samuel Argall to be promoted to deputy governor of Virginia, then England's only North American colony. Lord Rich wanted to turn Jamestown into a pirate base against the Spaniards. He had to work secretly because of the Peace of 1604 between King James and Spain.London apparently did not agree with Pocahontas, but she seems to have liked Brentford. The only information I had to go on was that she lived in what John Smith called Branford (sic) "opposite" Syon House. At least one contemporary indicated she did not wish to return to Virginia. The earl of Warwick however was eager to get his operation going. The London Company, at the earl's urging, promoted Argall and also Pocahontas' husband John Rolfe as Colony Secretary. Rolfe prevailed upon his wife to return to Virginia with him and their child Thomas. Unfortunately she died before the ship left London. Little Thomas Rolfe was left in England with Sir Lewis Stukely, who was sent to the Tower for clipping coins. The London Company which held the Virginia charter was torn apart by internal schisms. Company papers reveal that certain investors accused Warwick, Argall and Rolfe of planning to set up an independant Puritan kingdom in Virginia, using the legitimacy of Emperor Powhatan's grandson, Thomas Rolfe.King James and the Privy Council were suspicious of Rolfe's motive for marrying Pocahontas. Emperor Powhatan, upon learning of his daughter's death, desired to see the child Thomas, but he was kept in England. The abduction had cause the Indians to stop warring on Jamestown. Pocahontas' death ended the peace. Powhatan began plotting the destruction of English Virginia, but died before carrying it out. The attack was taken up by his half brother who struck in the Great Battle of 1622. Estimates say that 1/3 of the colonists were killed, and the colony was almost wiped out.The 1622 battle at Jamestown,perhaps more than any other single incident, colored the way the English would view the Indians in the ensuing colonization of North America.The Pocahontas story has been buried beneath the glaze of romantic myth, thanks to versions such as Disney's animated movie. Details of Pocahontas' short stay in Brentford may be key to understanding exactly what was happening in the neglected political context of King James' reign and the coming English Civil War. The earl of Warwick joined Cromwell's side as admiral of Parliament.
Timothy W. Hashaw ● 7297d