Colonizing America
Early attempts
In 1578 Elizabeth granted royal permission to Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c.1537–83), an early advocate of American colonization, to
discover, search, find out and view such remote heathen and barbarous lands countries and territories not actually possessed of any Christian prince or people…
As Spain had already laid claim to much of South and Central America, this meant that English attention was directed northwards, to the eastern coast of North America. Gilbert led three unsuccessful attempts to establish a colony in America, and was lost at sea on his last voyage in 1583. The following year, Elizabeth granted a patent to his half-brother, Walter Ralegh (1554–1618), to whom she transferred Gilbert's rights to a large swathe of land on America's east coast.
Ralegh and Roanoke
Ralegh was a soldier, poet, courtier and adventurer. He charmed Elizabeth with his good looks, wit and manners, and became one of her favourites during the early 1580s. In addition to his patent for America, he was granted a wine-trading monopoly in 1583 and appointed Captain of the Queen's Guard in 1586. He used his influence at court to promote a colonial policy that challenged Spain's global domination.
After an exploratory voyage in 1584, Ralegh decided that Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina, was the spot to plant a colony. Ralegh lobbied vigorously for state funding but to no avail. To the frustration of a number of her advisers and merchant-adventurers, Elizabeth did not allow high-risk ventures to be sponsored by the state, offering only royal permissions. Thus the initial forays into the colonization of America were initiated by individuals and paid for by private investors. As Ralegh put it, 'private purses are cold comfort to adventurers'.
Ralegh sponsored a number of attempts to establish an English colony at Roanoke, in the territory he claimed on the east coast of America and which he named 'Virginia' in honour of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, in 1585. The first group of 107 men landed in July 1585. Included in the group were artist John White and Thomas Harriot, as scientific adviser. They were charged with surveying and mapping the new territory and recording the indigenous people, plants and animals. This first attempt was abandoned within a year owing to harsh weather and insufficient supplies but the work of White and Harriot – maps, drawings, notes – helped to garner interest and investment for another expedition.
The drawings also provide a unique visual record of the life of the Native Americans of the territory, before English settlement was established.
The Lost Colony
The next attempt at founding a colony in Virginia was more ambitious. This time, John White was named governor and the group included families, who were also investors in the project. In July 1587 White and around 150 men, women and children arrived safely in Virginia. Ralegh had instructed the group to head for the Chesapeake Bay area north of Roanoke but, for some reason, the group returned to the previous settlement on Roanoke Island instead. The birth of the first English child in America, White's granddaughter, Virginia Dare, was recorded on 18 August 1587 in the 'Citie of Ralegh in Virginia'.
The settlers had arrived too late to plant crops, so White returned to England for more supplies. When he reached home, England was on the brink of war with Spain, which erupted in 1588. All ships and supplies were diverted from the Virginia enterprise to national defence. Ralegh and White's relief voyage was delayed until 1590 and White arrived to discover the settlement abandoned and no trace of its inhabitants. The fate of the 'Lost Colony' was never ascertained and remains a source of speculation to this day.
The disappearance of the 'Lost Colony' was a hard blow and the vision of America as a source of instant wealth disappeared with it. The dreams of Gilbert and Ralegh to establish a permanent colony in Virginia would not be realized until the settlement of Jamestown by the Virginia Company in 1607. Although these first attempts at colonizing America ended in failure, the drive and ambition of Elizabeth's adventurers laid the foundation for the successes that followed.