Smith J, Smith, John
ACHIEVEMENT(S): Founder of the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, VA.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: known as Captain John Smith
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: baptized 6 January 1580, at Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England
DATE/PLACE/AGE AT DEATH: 21 June 1631, in London, England. Aged 51
DISCIPLINE: Explorer, colonist and writer FIELD: Exploration
EDUCATION: Alford Grammar School, c. 1590-95
MAJOR WORK: 'Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles,' 1624
LIFE AND TIMES:
In 1596 Smith travelled to France, where he joined an English company of soldiers. He remained on the Continent for the next three or four years, serving for periods alongside both French and Dutch forces, before returning to England in 1599 or 1600 for a short while in order to study military science.
In 1600, Smith traveled to the Continent again and, after adventures in the Mediterranean and Italy, he joined up with the Austrian forces fighting the Turkish Empire in Hungary. In 1602 he was promoted to the rank of captain, before being captured by the Turks in Transylvania and taken to Turkey, where he was sold as a slave. He escaped and traveled via Russia, through Europe to Morocco, where he sailed for England during the winter of 1604-05.
In London in 1605, Smith became involved with a group preparing to establish an English colony in North America, and in 1606 he was chosen by the newly formed Virginia Company of London to be one of the governing council in Virginia. On 20 December 1606 Smith and about 100 others set sail for Virginia, arriving in Chesapeake Bay in April 1607, and disembarking on May 14 at what was to become Jamestown. While exploring the Chickahominy River in December 1607, he was captured by Native Americans of the Powhatan Confederacy and taken to their great chief, Wahunsonacock - known to the settlers as Powhatan - who was in the process of creating an "empire" of client tribes around the Chesapeake. Then he was subjected to what was probably an adoption ceremony, in which Powhatan's 13-year-old daughter, Pocahontas*, played a central role, and Smith was informed that he was now a 'werowance', or subchief, under Powhatan. Smith, however, remained convinced that he had only escaped execution by the intervention of Pocahontas.
During his expeditions, Smith also made extensive notes and drawings of the local geography and topography, and sent a series of map and drawings detailing a possible route for a Northwest Passage to Asia to his friend the explorer Hudson* in 1608.In September 1608 he was elected president of the Jamestown council, and effectively governor of Virginia. He immediately separated the colonists into small groups, according to Indian practice, and gave each group a small holding to farm away from the river. He then made a detailed plan for the development of the colony, and forced every member to participate in the digging of wells, the erection of twenty houses, the expansion of the fort at Jamestown to form a five-sided enclosure, and the construction of several outlying forts.
Smith also conducted some elementary military training in order to improve the colony's defences, and under his direction trading links were maintained, systematic fishing was introduced, and small quantities of tar, pitch, and soap ash were produced.
In September 1609 Smith was severely wounded by an accidental explosion in his powder bag while travelling in a canoe, and in October he decided to return to England, where he became a critic of the Virginia Company for placing weak men in positions of leadership and then expecting them to govern effectively. Smith also supervised the publication of his first important work, 'A Map of Virginia' (1612), which included a highly accurate, engraved map of the Chesapeake Bay area and detailed descriptions of the land and its people. A second volume, describing the colony and its development, was published separately as 'The Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia' (1612). These works made Smith's reputation as a skilled explorer, and in 1613 he received backing from a group of merchants called the Virginia Company of Plymouth to return to North America.
In 1614, Smith made a brief journey to the area he named New England, during which he carefully mapped the coast from Penobscot Bay to Cape Cod, on his return publishing a pamphlet promoting the region and titled 'A Description of New England' (1616), including a map with an inset portrait of Smith. In 1617, Smith made his last exploratory trip to North America, during which he was captured by French pirates and forced to serve for three months against the Spanish, before escaping and returning to England. Smith spent the last 15 years of his life in England writing and theorizing about the colonial experience and promoting New England as the most promising North American colony.
He continued to be highly critical of the Virginia Company's failures, and in 1624 he published his large 'Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles', at exactly the time when the English government was considering the renewal of the Company's charter, which was soon afterwards revoked. In this important work, which was highly influential on the colonies established by the Puritans of Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay, Smith offered a new vision of colonization in North America, in which extensive planning in England would result in the selection of hard-working men and women prepared permanently to emigrate and to establish adequate housing and food supplies.
During the late 1620s Smith also published books on other topics, including two books on seamanship, 'An Accidence or the Path-way to Experience: Necessary for All Young Seamen' (1626) and 'A Sea Grammar' (1627). In 1630 he published his autobiography, titled 'The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith in Europe, Asia, Africa and America', which told the story of his early life and brought the history of the colonies up to date. His final work, in which he developed his theories on colonization, was his 'Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England, or Anywhere' (1631).
ASSESSMENT: Smith played an equally important role as a cartographer and a prolific writer, who vividly depicted the natural abundance of the New World and encouraged many prospective English settlers to emigrate.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: Descendant was Adm. WH Smyth*
ONELINER: John Smith, founder of Jamestown colony
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
DNB, EB, ANB
Barbour, Philip L., The Three Worlds of Captain John Smith, 1964
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS: George Smith (d. 1596) and Alice Rickard
SIBLINGS: ?
SPOUSE: None
CHILDREN: None