Today in History - 18th August

18th August 1587 - First English child born in the New World

438 years ago today, Virginia Dare was born on Roanoke Island (in what is now North Carolina), becoming the first English child to be born in the Americas. Virginia was born to English colonists Ananias Dare and Eleanor White, and was the granddaughter of John White, the governor of Roanoke Colony, the first English settlement in America.

Roanoke Colony was first established in 1585, by an expedition led by the explorer Sir Ralph Lane; John White was involved in this expedition, serving as a cartographer. However, after a year, attacks from natives and a lack of supplies put the colonists in a precarious position, until they were rescued by Sir Francis Drake, who arrived from a raid in the Caribbean and evacuated the colonists back to England.

A second attempt at establishing a colony on Roanoke Island was launched the following year, this time led by John White, who was under orders from Sir Walter Raleigh to establish the 'Cittie of Raleigh' on the Chesapeake Bay. 3 ships departed England on the 8th of May, with roughly 115 people between them. White's daughter, Eleanor, was pregnant with Virginia at the time of departure. The expedition landed on America's Eastern Seaboard in July 1587, and the following month Virginia Dare became the first English person to be born in the so-called 'New World.' At the end of the month, Virginia's grandfather, returned to England in order to secure aid and supplies, intending to return quickly.

However, in 1588, the Spanish Armada attempted to invade England, and all of England's naval resources were focused on repelling it. Therefore, White could not procure a ship to return to Roanoke until 1590, and when he finally returned, the colony was abandoned. There was no sign of a struggle, and the only clue was the word 'Croatoan' carved into a post. White took this to mean that the colonists had relocated to the nearby Croatoan island, and attempted to search for his fellow colonists, daughter and granddaughter. However rough seas and damage to his anchor forced White to return to England, and since then no one has ever managed to uncovered what happened to the lost colony of Roanoke.

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