List of Jamestown colonists
On, 105 to 108 English men and boys established the Jamestown Settlement for the Virginia Company of London, on a slender peninsula on the bank of the James River. It became the first long-term English settlement in North America.
The trips aboard the ships Susan Constant, Discovery, and the Godspeed, and the settlement itself, were sponsored by the London Company, whose "adventurers" hoped to make a profit from the resources of the New World. The settlers suffered terrible hardships in its early years, including sickness, starvation, and native attacks. By early 1610, most of the settlers had died due to starvation and disease. With resupply and additional immigrants, it managed to endure, becoming America's first permanent English colony.
Once the settlement location was chosen, the company members opened sealed instructions containing the list of the previously chosen councillors of the Virginia Governor's Council. The first council president was Edward Maria Wingfield. The other six council members were Bartholomew Gosnold, John Martin, John Ratcliffe, George Kendall, Christopher Newport and John Smith.
Original settlers (May 1607)
On December 30, 1606, between 105 and 108 settlers with 39 mariners sailed aboard three ships from Blackwall, London, England.| Name | Occupation | Alt. names | Death date | Notes |
| Gentleman | Adding, H. | |||
| Gentleman | Alikok Ancient, Jeremy | 1607–08–04 | Slain by natives | |
| Captain and Gentleman | Archer, Gabriell | 1609 or 1610 winter | Secretary to the Council | |
| 1607–08–06 | First death of the colony | |||
| Captain and Gentleman | Behethland, R. | 1627 | ||
| Gentleman | Beast, B. | 1607–09–05 | ||
| Mason and Soldier | Brinton, E. | |||
| Gentleman | 1607–04–07 | Died in the West Indies | ||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Gentleman | Brown, E. | 1607–08–15 | ||
| Boy | Brunfield, J. | |||
| Shipmaster | Bucler, A. | 1625 | ||
| Gentleman | Brewster, W. | 1607–08–10 | Died from native wound | |
| Carpenter | Not listed after June 1607 | |||
| Labourer | Cawson, G. | 1607–12–26 | Killed by natives | |
| Labourer | ||||
| Labourer | ||||
| Gentleman | Clovill, Eustice | 1607–06–07 | Killed by natives | |
| Samuel Collier | Boy | Dutch Samuel | 1622 | John Smith's page |
| Gentleman | ||||
| Barber | Cowper, T. | |||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Labourer and Soldier | "1624 VA muster with wife Jane, 40 at muster, he was 36" | |||
| Labourer | ||||
| Carpenter | 1607–12–26 | Killed by natives | ||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Gentleman | Flowre, G. | 1607–08–09 | ||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Gentleman | Calthrop, Halthrop | 1607–08–10 | Possible mutineer | |
| Bricklayer | ||||
| Labourer | Goulding, G. | |||
| Gentleman | Gower, T. | 1607–08–16 | ||
| Gentleman | 1609–01–07 | Possibly two cousins with identical names. Drowned Jan 1609 in James River. Grandson of Robert Gosnold of Earl Soham, Suffolk. | ||
| ' | Councillor and Captain | 1607–08–22 | Captain of the Godspeed | |
| Gentleman | 1607–08–24 | |||
| Bricklayer | not listed after June 1607 | |||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Preacher | before 1609 | |||
| Sergeant | Jacon, T. | 1607–09–04 | ||
| Labourer | ||||
| ' | Councillor and Captain | 1607–12–01 | Execution by firing squad for "mutiny" | |
| Gentleman | E. Kiniston or Kinnistone | 1607–09–18 | "Starved to death with cold" | |
| Carpenter and Labourer | Leyden | arrived on the Susan Constant | ||
| Carpenter | Laxton, W. | |||
| Tailor and Soldier | Loue, W. | |||
| ' | Councillor and Captain | Martine, J | 1632-06-?? | Lower Brandon Plantation owner |
| Gentleman | 1607–09–18 | Son of Councillor | ||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Gentleman | Francis Midwinter | 1607–08–14 | Died suddenly | |
| Corporal and Gentleman | Morris, E. | 1607–08–14 | Died suddenly | |
| Labourer | 1607–08–17 | Died suddenly | ||
| Gentleman | 1607–09–19 | |||
| Boy | ||||
| Boy | Pecock, N. | |||
| Gentleman | Robert Pennington | 1608-08-18 | ||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Gentleman, Shipmaster | Percie | 1632 | Eventual Governor of Virginia Colony. Son of Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland. | |
| Gentleman | Dru Piggas or Peggase | 1607–08–19 | ||
| Carpenter | Posing, E. | |||
| Captain and Gentleman | Nathaniell | 1622–03–22 | Served as acting Governor of Virginia Colony in 1619 | |
| ' | Councillor and Captain | Sicklemore, J. | 1609-11-?? | Captain of the Discovery, eventual Governor |
| Blacksmith and Soldier | 1622–03–13 | |||
| Gentleman | Jehu | 1607–12–26 | Killed by natives | |
| Labourer | Roods, W. | 1607–08–27 | not listed after June 1607 | |
| Gentleman | Sandys, T. | Brother of Edwin Sandys (1561–1629) | ||
| Labourer | 1607-08-?? | |||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Gentleman | Simmons, R. | 1607–09–18 | ||
| Drummer | Skot, N. | |||
| Carpenter | ||||
| ' | Councillor and Captain | Smyth, J. | 1631-06-?? | |
| Gentleman | ||||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Gentleman, Cape Merchant | Stoodie, T. | 1607–08–28 | ||
| Gentleman | Tankard, W. | |||
| Labourer | Tanin, H. | |||
| Gentleman | Throgmortine, Kenelme | 1607–08–26 | ||
| Carpenter and Soldier | Servant to John Martin and later explorer. Accompanied John Smith on several expeditions. | |||
| Labourer | ||||
| Gentleman | 1607-08-24 | |||
| Gentleman | Waler | 1607–08–24 | ||
| Gentleman | ||||
| Labourer | ||||
| Surgeon | ||||
| ' | Councillor and Captain | Edward Marie Winfield | 1631 | Captain of Susan Constant |
| Surgeon | ||||
| Commoner |
Settlers from First Supply (January and April 1608)
Aboard the John and Francis and the Phœnix, The John and Francis arrives in January, while the Phenix is considered lost. 120 settlers left England in October 1607. Only 100 made it to Virginia to settle. When they arrived at Jamestown, there were only 38 to 40 men that had survived the summer and autumn.Settlers from Second Supply (autumn 1608)
Quickly after the first supply, Captain Newport boarded 70 new colonists to the Mary and Margaret. First women colonists are noted with female sign.Settlers from Third Supply (August 1609)
With 500 to 600 persons, a fleet of nine ships set sail in May 1609 led by Thomas Gates and George Somers. The ships were named Sea Venture, Diamond, Faulcon, Blessinge, Unitie, Lion, Swallow, Virginia, and Catch,.In July, a tropical storm struck the flotilla. The Catch vanished with all aboard, and the Sea Venture shipwrecked on Bermuda, inadvertently colonizing the island. The seven remaining ships arrived at Jamestown only to bring diseased and hungry passengers to the stressed colony.
| Name | Occupation | Alt. names | Ships | Notes on travel |
| Captain and gentleman | Archer, Gabriell | Blessinge | Secretary to the Council, previously sailed with original colonists | |
| Captain | Blessinge | |||
| Bagewell, Henery | Sea Venture → Deliverance | Traveled from Bermuda to Virginia on Deliverance, aged 35 | ||
| Wife of Richard Barrow | Flowerdew Barrow, T. | Faulcon | Uncertain if husband Richard Barrow accompanied to Virginia | |
| carpenter | Sea Venture | |||
| Sea Venture | ||||
| ✝️ | Sea Venture | Died in Bermuda, 1609-1610 | ||
| Reverend, Chaplain | Bucke or Bucket, R. | Sea Venture | Uncertain if traveled with wife or children | |
| Marye Thorowgood | Sea Venture | Died 1620 | ||
| Buck daughter | child, girl | Bucket | Sea Venture | Unknown name, daughter of Richard Buck |
| Buck daughter | child, girl | Bucket | Sea Venture | Unknown name, daughter of Richard Buck |
| Saltmaker | William Moss Cappes, Sr. | Sea Venture | ||
| Sea Venture | Plotted to assassinate Sir Thomas Gates, considered a deserter and stayed behind on Bermuda. Settled Smith's Island. | |||
| Lion | Husband Nathaniel Causey was already in Virginia. | |||
| Chard, Joshua or Joseph | Sea Venture | |||
| Chart, E. | Sea Venture | Sailed back to Bermuda with George Somers, remained on Smith's Island | ||
| Captain, mariner | Davies, J. | Virginia | From Popham Colony | |
| Shipmaster | Davies, R. | Virginia | Likely brother to James Davis | |
| Wife of James Davis | Virginia | |||
| Sea Venture | ||||
| ✝️ | baby boy | Easton, Bermudas | -- | Born on Bermuda islands, died either on the islands or arriving at Jamestown |
| Easton, E. | Sea Venture | Father to Bermudas, husband to Mistress Eason | ||
| Easton | Sea Venture | Mother to Bermudas, wife to Edward Eason | ||
| ✝️ | Shipmaster | Finch, M. | Catch | Died July 1609 |
| Shipwright | Frubbusher, Robert | Sea Venture | Builder of the Deliverance on Bermuda | |
| ' | Governor and Lt. General | Sea Venture | ||
| Sea Venture → Deliverance | Traveled rom Bermuda to Virginia on Deliverance, aged 36 | |||
| Graye, G. | Sea Venture | |||
| Captain | Haman, Raphe | Sea Venture | ||
| Sea Venture | ||||
| ✝️ | Sea Venture | Died on Bermuda, 1609-1610 | ||
| merchant and tanner | Sea Venture | Protested leaving Bermuda, was almost executed for mutiny. Died 1644. | ||
| Girl | Jones, E. | Sea Venture | Probably aged 9 or 10 | |
| Captain, gentleman | Sea Venture | |||
| Writer, gentleman | Jordan, Sylvester | Sea Venture | Writer of A Discovery of the Barmudas | |
| Captain | Diamond | Mariner | ||
| Sea Venture | ||||
| ✝️ | Sea Venture | Died in Bermuda, 1609-1610 | ||
| Servant | Lightfoot, J. | Sea Venture → Patience | Servant living with William Peirce in 1624 | |
| ' | Councillor and Captain | Faulcon | Original Jamestown settler, traveled back and forth from England | |
| Sea Venture | ||||
| Matchumps | Powhatan servant to Namontack | Sea Venture | ||
| Captain | Swallow | Mariner | ||
| Carpenter | Sea Venture | Returned to Bermuda as a deputy governor in 1612 | ||
| Namontack ✝️ | Powhatan translator | Namotacke | Sea Venture | Died 1610, slain by Matchumps in Bermuda |
| Mitchell, F. | Sea Venture | |||
| Shipmaster | Francys Nelson | Faulcon | Mariner | |
| ' | Captain and Councillor | Sea Venture | Mariner | |
| ✝️ | Sea Venture | Executed for refusing to report for watch patrol in Bermuda | ||
| Sea Venture | ||||
| Maidservant to Mistress Horton | Sea Venture | Would marry Thomas Powell on Bermuda, aged 30 | ||
| Soldier | Pierce, W. or Pearse | Sea Venture | ||
| Wife of William Peirce, mother of two Janes | Pierce, Jone | Blessinge | ||
| girl | Jane Pierce | Blessinge | ||
| girl | Joan | Blessinge | ||
| ✝️ | Captain | Pinnace (ship's boat) in tow by Sea Venture | Died at sea during the tropical storm, July 1609 | |
| Shipmaster | Arthur Pett | Unitie | Could be purported member of the Pitt family, or a Robert Fitt who was active in 1625 | |
| Cook | Sea Venture | George Somers' cook. Married Elizabeth Persons in Bermuda | ||
| Gentleman, Yeoman | Sea Venture | |||
| ' | Councillor | Diamond | Original settler. Died 1609-1610 after arriving in Virginia | |
| ✝️ | Master's mate | Raven, H. | Sea Venture → pinnace (ship's boat) | Lost at sea after sailing a pinnace for help after shipwreck on Bermuda, 1609 |
| Sea Venture | ||||
| Soldier | Sea Venture | Author of "verse pamphlet", "Newes from Virginia: the lost flocke triumphant". Died in 1630 after returning to Bermuda. | ||
| ✝️ | baby girl | -- | John Rolfe and Sarah Hacker Rolfe's daughter. Born on Bermuda islands, died on islands | |
| tobacco trader | Sea Venture | |||
| ✝️ | Wife of John Rolfe | Sea Venture | Either died in Bermuda or soon after reaching Virginia | |
| ✝️ | Samuel, E. | Sea Venture | Murdered by shipmate Edward Waters | |
| Lieutenant | Sea Venture | |||
| Sergeant | Sgt Sharp | Sea Venture | ||
| Mr. Shelly | Sea Venture | |||
| ' | Admiral of the Fleet, Councillor | Sea Venture → Patience | Died upon return to Bermuda, November 1610 | |
| Captain | Mathew Somers | Swallow | Nephew of George Somers. Sailed to Bermuda and then back to England at some point in 1610. | |
| teenaged boy, writer | Unitie | |||
| ' | Secretary-elect, writer | Sea Venture | Author of True Reportory and other works | |
| Sea Venture | ||||
| Cockswain | Sea Venture → Patience | Bermuda's Walsingham Bay and region namesakes are due to Robert. Walsingham piloted the Patience during launch from Castle Harbour reefs. | ||
| John Want | Sea Venture | Refused to build boats to be rescued or to leave Bermuda | ||
| Lieutenant | Robert Waters | Sea Venture | Murdered shipmate Edward Samuell. Taken into custody, then to a tree and left to starve, but escaped by cutting the ropes. Remained in Bermuda afterward, settled Smith's Island. | |
| Captain, sergeant-major | Lion | |||
| ✝️ | Cape merchant | Sea Venture → pinnace (ship's boat) | Lost at sea after sailing a pinnace for help after marooning on Bermuda, 1609 | |
| Captain | Unitie | |||
| Captain of the guard for Thomas Gates | Sea Venture |
Settlers from Fourth Supply (June 1610)
Survivors from Bermuda salvaged the Sea Venture, and built two ships: Deliverance and Patience. The ships made it to Jamestown on May 23 to find only 60 starving colonists, and chose to abandon the colony.Patience and Deliverance
- Henry Bagwell
- Mistress Maria Thorowgood Buck
- Richard Buck
- William Capps
- Edward Eason
- Mistress Eason
- Richard Frobisher
- Thomas Gates
- Thomas Godby
- Stephen Hopkins
- Elizabeth Joons
- Silvester Jourdain
- Matchumps
- Elizabeth Powell
- Thomas Powell
- Robert Rich
- John Rolfe
- Mistress Sarah Hacker Rolfe
- George Somers
- William Strachey
- Robert Walsingham
- George Yeardley
De La Warr's mission
At the same time, Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr and Samuel Argall, led a humanitarian mission from England with 150 men and supplies. Aboard the Hercules, Blessinge, and De La Warr ships, they intercepted the weary colonists in Chesapeake Bay departing Virginia and compelled them to return to Jamestown with the new provisions and passengers.- Captain Samuel Argall
- Doctor Lawrence Bohun
- Master Andrew Buckler
- Sir Humphrey Blunt
- Reynold Booth
- Captain Edward Brewster
- Joan Chandler
- Captain Ralph Hamor, secretary
- William Henrick Faldoe, a Swiss mine-hunter
- William Julian
- Richard Kingsmill, on the Delaware
- Captain Thomas Lawson
- Reverend William Mease
- Master Anthony Scott, ensign
- Master Stacy
- Master Robert Tyndall, mariner
- Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, "Lord Governor and Captain General"
- Captain William West
- Sir Ferdinando Wainmen, captain and gentleman, master of the ordnance
Other settlers in 1610-11
The Hercules, which had left in July, 1610, returned to Virginia on April, 1611, with 30 immigrants.The Noah brought ancient planter Henry Coltman in August, 1610. In September 1610, the Dainty arrived with "twelve men, one woman, three horses, and provisions..." Captained by Nathaniel West, the Mary Ann brought over widow Mistress Francis West. The Mary and Thomas brought over William Tucker.
Settlers from Fifth Supply (May and August 1611)
Both Thomas Dale and Thomas Gates led flotillas back to Virginia. Thomas Dale headed to the colony with 300 labourers, at the request of the London Company. The Starr, the Elizabeth, and Prosperous also carried horses, poultry, goats, and rabbits. Thomas Gates had ships Sarah, Tryall, Swan which arrived just after the Dale flotilla. Those who died before arriving in Virginia are indicated with a Latin cross- John Clarke, pilot
- Thomas Dale, "Marshall of Virginia", on the Starr
- ✝️ Mistress Thomas Gates, wife of Gates
- Daughter of Gates
- Daughter of Gates
- Cecily Jordan Farrar, girl
- Robert Poole, boy, on the Starr
- Robert Poole, Sr., father, on the Starr
- John Poole, brother of Robert the elder, on the Starr
- Reverend Mister Poole
- William Spencer, yeoman
- Thomas Sully
- Reverend Alexander Whitaker, on the Starr
- Robert Wright, sawyer
Additional reading
- Bernard Bailyn, The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675
- Warren M. Billings, The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606-1700
- James Horn, A Land as God Made It
- Margaret Huber, Powhatan Lords of Life and Death: Command and Consent in Seventeenth-Century Virginia
- William M. Kelso, Jamestown, The Buried Truth
- David A. Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown
- Helen C. Rountree, The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture
- Ed Southern, Jamestown Adventure, The: Accounts of the Virginia Colony, 1605-1614
- Tony Williams, "The Jamestown Experiment: The Remarkable Story of the Enterprising Colony and the Unexpected Results that Shaped America"
- Jocelyn R. Wingfield, Virginia's True Founder: Edward Maria Wingfield and His Times
- Benjamin Woolley, Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America
- William M. Kelso, Nicholas M. Luccketti, Beverly A. Straube, The Jamestown Rediscovery Archaeology Project