The birth and disappearance of Virginia Dare

Over 400 years ago, the Mayflower departed from Plymouth in Devon, around 135 people were on board, some of whom were families intended to make up the first American colonies in the New World. Before they set sail however, there had already been attempts to start colonies in the New World. The Roanoke Colony was one of the first that was attempted to be established, initially by Sir Walter Raleigh.

Roanoke Island, what is in modern day Dare County, North Carolina was managed by Ralph Lane, however the colony failed and disbanded. A second attempt, led by John White, set sail for the same island in 1587. Among those on board were John’s daughter Eleanor and her husband, Ananias Dare, who were expecting a child. There were around 115 people on board, mostly families made up of middle class Londoners, as well as two Native Americans who had become part of the original colony.  

After departing in April, the voyage took almost three months before the ship landed off Roanoke Island, where the colonists discovered the original colony and began building their new community. Less than a month later, on 18^th August, Eleanor Dare gave birth to her daughter, Virginia, the first English child to be born into the New World.

While you might think that such a momentous occasion would have gone down in history and that Virginia’s birth would be hailed as the start of a new era, there is little known about her infancy, in fact, Virginia, her parents and the entire colony would be reported missing just three years later and have never been located.

Shortly after Virginia’s birth, it became evident that the colony were in need of more supplies and reluctantly, Governor White was convinced to return to England. He eventually set sail when his granddaughter was just nine days old, planning to pick up supplies and more colonists, returning to Roanoke within the year. Plans for an alliance with the Native Tribes and a proposal to move to other islands were already underway and White likely believed that this would be settled by the time he returned. However, almost immediately after arriving in England, the Spanish Armada began, which left him unable to set sail for another three years. He eventually returned to Roanoke on his granddaughter’s third birthday to find that the colony had been abandoned. White and the men that had returned with him searched the land and according to his log book, all they found was the letters CRO carved into a nearby tree and the word Croatoan carved into a post that made up the colonists fort. All the houses and other buildings had been dismantled in a seemingly calm way, leaving no indication of a struggle or that there had been any hurry to move. When he had left, the colonists had an understanding that they should use Maltese crosses on the trees to indicate that there had been a problem, but there appeared to be none of these. Initially, White believed the messages to mean that the colony had moved to a nearby island known as Croatoan Island, which is now Hetteras Island. White however, was unable to find any trace of his family or any of the others who made up what is now known as the “Lost Colony.” There were attempts to reach the nearby Croatoan Island, however shipwrecks meant this was impossible and plans were made to search at another time.

Searches undertaken over the next few years did nothing to uncover the fate of the colonists and to this day, they have not been located. Over the last 400 years, Virginia Dare has become a prominent figure in myth and folklore and several places in the southern states were named in her honour, including the island where she was born, which now sits within Dare County.

As with any mystery there are several theories of what happened to the Roanoke Colony. John Smith, yes, he of Pocahontas fame, the leader of the Jamestown Colony was one of many people who searched for the Roanoke colonists and wrote down several of his findings, including that the colony was attacked by a tribe of Native Americans and the survivors had been assimilated into the tribe, but there appears to be no real evidence to support this. The Jamestown Colony was just one of several who sent out search parties but it was eventually assumed that the Roanoke colony were all dead. There is evidence to suggest that European and English people were sighted among several Native tribes from 1612 onwards, but whether they were from the Roanoke Colony has never been established.

Other notable figures launched investigations into Roanoke, including Sir Walter Raleigh who wanted to maintain an air of mystery about the colonies’ location so that he could retain his claim on the area. However, John Dare, Ananias Dare’s oldest son, who had remained in England, launched a petition to declare his father legally dead so that he could inherit the estate, something that was granted in 1597. Raleigh did claim to set out on a voyage to find the colonists, but this later turned out to be a cover for his true search for El Dorado. He would later be implicated in a plot against the king and would be arrested for treason, stopping his transatlantic journeys all together.

Another attempt to find the colony was launched in 1603, but the leader of the expedition was captured and killed in a fight against Native Americans.

Virginia herself has become the focus of local myth, it is widely assumed that she was the first white child to have been born in America, though again, this is speculated. One of the most enduring legends about her is that she is The White Doe. To this day, people report seeing a ghostly looking white doe near the area that would have made up the Roanoke Colony’s home, with many believing that the doe is Virginia Dare, thanks to a poem that attempts to explain the disappearance and claims that Virginia, along with the other children in the colony were taken in by a Native tribe and was turned into a white doe which was later killed and now haunts the area.

Whatever happened to the Roanoke Colony and Virginia will likely never be fully understood but with the anniversary of both her birth and the discovery of her disappearance coming up this month, now is as good a time as any to try and solve the mystery.

What do you think happened to the families of the Roanoke community? Did they simply move in the three years that White was away and he was unable to reach them? Or were they attacked and captured by another colony or tribe?