Friday, August 18, 2023

It is the 18th of August, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

It’s Friday- let’s have some fun with a story that is church history adjacent-

August 18th was a big day for Governor John White- it was on this day in 1590 that he finally made his return trip to the colony in the New World entrusted to him by Sir Walter Raleigh. And it just so happens that the 18th would be the third birthday of his granddaughter. 

His daughter, Eleanor, had given birth to Virginia- her husband, Ananias Dare, was an assistant to the governor, his father, and law. Virginia Dare was soon baptized, becoming the first English child born in the colonies and the first English person to be baptized. On account of this, and the story of that “lost colony of Roanoke,”   her name has been made emblematic of early English settlements but also a watchword for everything from premium extracts to white nationalism. Let’s tell the story.

Governor White was selected by Raleigh to take over the fort abandoned by early settlers who grew tired of waiting for supplies and hitched a ride with Sir Francis Drake back to London. When the supply ship came, they found it abandoned, left 15 men to hold the fort, and headed back to London to tell Raleigh. Raleigh selected 117 people, including White, to serve as governor and his son-in-law and pregnant wife.

This group made it to the fort at Roanoke in the new “Virginia territory” (Virginia named for Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, who gave Raleigh the red light to set up these colonies). However, they were surprised to learn that the 15 men who stayed had been murdered by the locals who were none-too-happy with these foreign interlopers. Unfortunately, the fate of those men was not discovered before the Portuguese sailor, eager to leave, took Governor Smith with him back to England, where Smith could get more supplies. White made it back to London, but the English War with Spain was on- news of the Spanish Armada terrified the English, who insisted that all ships must be conscripted and thus there would be no heading back to the Roanoke colony for the time being. BY 1588 the Armada was famously defeated, and White could take his supplies to the colonists who would certainly be needing them.

Except when he returned, on this the 3rd anniversary of his granddaughter's birth- the camp was deserted. They had made a plan for such an event- if they moved willingly, they would carve where they went into a tree. If they were being moved forcibly, they would carve a Maltese cross on a tree. There was no cross but one inscription that read CRO and another Croatoan. Their native guide, Manteo, whom they met in England, was from the Croatoan tribe- that’s where they must be. But a hurricane wrecked White’s ship, and he was forced back to England. He was never able to raise the funds to go back, and the mystery of the lost Roanoke with young Virginia Dare- the first English Baby baptized in the new world was never heard from again.

In the 1940s, a number of stones were found in the region with markings and writing. They claimed to be written by Eleanor Dare as a message for her father. They were exposed as fraudulent in 1940.

When the Jamestown Colony came next, they were said to have searched and inquired among local natives who claimed that they were murdered.

Another claim was that the Pembroke tribe- claiming to be from “Roanoke in Virginia” had distinctive European traits, and perhaps the colony assimilated into the Croatoan tribe, and the descendants of the Dares and others were in that tribe.

 As you might imagine- the story of this colony and the young girl Virginia Dare has inspired numerous stories- from Neil Gaiman, who has her in his 1602 comic book series and gives her the ability to turn into, among other things, a white Doe. She appeared as the white doe in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Unfortunately, insecure folk with junk race science use Virginia as a symbol of some kind of white supremacy. Shine those guys- and remember Virginia Dare as the first English person baptized in the New World and as part of the ever-mysterious lost colony of Roanoke.

The last word for today comes from the morning hymn of Thomas Ken- a selection:

Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run; 

Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise

To pay thy morning sacrifice. 



Thy precious time mispent, redeem, 

Each present day thy last esteem ; 

Improve thy talent with due care, 

For the great day thyself prepare.

All praise to Thee who safe hast kept,

And hast refresh'd me whilst I slept.

Grant Lord, when I from death shall wake,

I may of endless Light partake.

Direct, control, suggest, this day,

All I design, or do, or say,

That all my Powers with all their might,

In Thy sole Glory may unite.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 18th of August 2023 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by the Spike to my Angel, he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who didn’t watch much Buffy but knows those were two main characters- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.