Bartholomew Gosnold

Bartholomew Gosnold (* 1572, † 1607) was an English lawyer, businessman and explorer. He was instrumental in the founding of the Virginia Company and operated through these colonization of Virginia and led beyond the expedition, which visited Cape Cod on May 15, 1602.

Background and education

He was born in 1572 in Grundisburg in the county of Suffolk, the son of Antony Gosnold and Dorothy Bacon, who possessed an estate in Otley. He attended the University of Cambridge and then studied at the Middle Temple law.

Trip to New England

Friendship with the geographer Richard Hakluyt and by participating in one of the journeys of Walter Raleigh, he decided in 1602 to sail from Falmouth with the comprehensive 32 Concord heads to North America. His route took him via the Azores directly to Cape Elizabeth in present-day Maine, where he arrived in early May 1602. He followed the coast for a few days and discovered York Harbour, Cape Cod, Martha 's Vineyard and Cuttyhunk Iceland, where he founded a small settlement. This was abandoned in the fall, because the settlers did not have sufficient supplies for a winter. Written by John Bereton - - Even in 1602 a report on this trip was published in London.

Virginia

After his return Gosnold lingered for some years in England to promote the preparation of a serious attempt colonization in North America. From King James I received the much he initiated Virginia Company of London in 1606, the exclusive right to establish the Jamestown colony. The leader of the expedition Gosnold recruited mainly from relatives and participants of the expedition of 1602.

With the ships Godspeed, Susan Constant and Discovery, the expedition of 104 settlers and sailors stood out in spring 1607 in the lake and reached the beginning of May 1607 coast of North America. The city of Jamestown was founded on an island in the James River in the presence of serving as Vice- Admiral of the Fleet Gosnold On May 14, 1607. Popular with the settlers Gosnold, who had spoken out against the system of the colony on the island, helped actively in the construction of a fort against the ongoing attacks of the Powhatan Confederacy. However, he already died on August 22, 1607, probably from an intestinal infection.