Navigator and colonizer, born in England, UK. Looking for a western passage to Asia, he led an expedition in the Concord which went to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Elizabeth's Isle, all of which he named (1602). He was vice-admiral of the original Virginia Company fleet (16067) and died of malarial fever in Jamestown.
Bartholomew Gosnold (1572 - August 22, 1607) was an English lawyer, explorer, and privateer. He was instrumental in founding the Virginia Company of London, and also Jamestown, Virginia, and is considered by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) to be the "prime mover of the colonization of Virginia."
He was born in Grundisburgh in Suffolk, England in 1572.
He was friend of Richard Hakluyt and sailed with Walter Raleigh. He obtained backing to attempt a colony in the New World and in 1602 he sailed from Falmouth in a small Dartmouth bark, The Concord, with 32 on board. They intended to establish a colony in New England which was then known as Northern Virginia.
He pioneered a direct route due west from the Azores to New England arriving in May 1602 Cape Elizabeth in Maine (Lat 43 degrees).
The next day, he sailed to Cape Cod, a place he is credited with naming.
A notable account of the voyage, written by John Brereton one of the gentlemen adventurers, was published in 1602, and this helped in popularising subsequent voyages of exploration and colonisation of the north east seaboard of America.
Gosnold spent several years after his return to England promoting a more ambitious attempt; he obtained from King James I an exclusive charter for a Virginia Company to settle Virginia.
He was popular among the colonists and opposed the location of the colony;
By all accounts, he was greatly missed, and his loss marked the beginnings of the discord which tore apart the colony its first several years.
Possible discovery of his grave
In 2005, the APVA announced that they believed their archaeological dig at Jamestown had found his grave, and started an attempt to verify their identitity through genetic fingerprinting. By June researchers had received the approval of the Church of England to take DNA samples from the remains of his sister, located in an English church, the first ever granted for such purposes.
The DNA analysis will be conducted by the Smithsonian Institution.
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