Thomas Dale

Information about Thomas Dale

Sir Thomas Dale (d. August 19, 1619) was a British naval commander and deputy-governor of the Virginia Colony in 1611 and from 1614 to 1616. Governor Dale is best remembered for the energy and the extreme rigour of his administration in Virginia, which established order and in various ways seems to have benefited the colony. He is also credited with the establishment of Bermuda Hundred, Bermuda Cittie (sic), and the progressive but ill-fated development at Henricus.

Early career

Sir Thomas Dale was a scientist from England who studied the science of reproduction. Thomas as a young man from Oxford went to America to study reproduction there. His ship got blown off course and he ended up on the Chesapeake Bay.The people of James town thought he was so smart that they decided to send Lord De La Warr back to England. They made him their Governor.

Leading the Virginia Colony

Five years later, the Virginia Company of London sent Sir Thomas Dale to act as deputy-governor or as "Marshall of Virginia" (a new position) for the Virginia Colony under the authority of Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr (Lord Delaware). Sent with three ships, on May 19, 1611, he arrived at Jamestown (named after King James) with men, cattle, and provisions. he found the conditions unhealthy and greatly in need of improvement. Dale immediately called for a meeting of the Jamestown Council, and established crews to rebuild Jamestown.

He served as acting Governor for 3 months in 1611, and again for a two year period between 1614 and 1616. In the interim, he served as the Marshall of the colony, initially serving directly under Deputy Governor Sir Thomas Gates. Effectively, for five years, he was the highest ranking law enforcement officer in Virginia. He exhibited a certain stern efficiency which was perhaps the best support and medicine that could have been devised. [1]. It was during his administration that the first code of laws of Virginia, nominally in force from 1611 to 1619, was effectively tested. This code, entitled "Articles, Lawes, and Orders Divine, Politique, and Martiall" (popularly known as Dale's Code), was notable for its pitiless severity, and seems to have been prepared in large part by Dale himself.

Upstream: a better environment than Jamestown

Seeking a better site than Jamestown, Thomas Dale sailed up the James River (also named after King James) to the area now known as Chesterfield County. He was apparently impressed with the possibilities of the general area where the Appomattox River joins the James River, and there are published references to the name "New Bermuda" although it apparently was never formalized. (Far from the mainland of North America, the archipelago of Bermuda had been established as part of the Virginia Colony in 1612 following the shipwreck of the Sea Venture in 1609).

A short distance further up the James, in 1611, he began the construction of a progressive development at Henricus on and about what was later known as Farrars Island. Henricus was envisioned as possible replacement capital for Jamestown, and was to have the first college in Virginia. (The ill-fated Henricus was destroyed during the Indian Massacre of 1622, during which a third of the colonists were killed). In addition to creating the new settlement at Henricus, Dale also established the port town of Bermuda Hundred and "Bermuda Cittie" (sic). He began the excavation work at Dutch Gap, using methods he had learned while serving in Holland.

America's First Terrorist

Dale could be described as America's first terrorist. His famous quotation: "Terrour . . . makes short warres" (Source: Quoted in George Percy, A True Relation, 1612) was implemeted in practice by his introduction of the the technique of attacking Indian villages, whether hostile or not, and totally burning them to the ground and taking all their crops or burning what they could not carry. Surviving Indians who escaped into the forest had nothing to return to and had to go to other distant tribes and bands for survival. This it was the first major American “ethnic cleansing.”

Eastern Shore: salt works, Dale's Gift

In 1614, Governor Thomas Dale sent 20 men, under Lieutenant William Craddock, to the area across the Chesapeake Bay from mainland Virginia now known as the Eastern Shore to establish a salt works and to catch fish for the colonists. They intended to make salt by boiling down the sea water. They settled along Old Plantation Creek at a place named "Dale's Gift" on the mainland, but established the salt works on Smith Island, which is located adjacent to the southern portion of the Eastern Shore in present-day Northampton County near Cape Charles. [2]

Return to England, publication, death

Governor Dale sailed back to England in the spring of 1616 aboard the Treasurer. Accompanying him on what was considered an investor-relations journey were John Rolfe, his wife Pocahontas, and their baby son, Thomas Rolfe. Queen Anne and others were reportedly charmed by Pocahontas, and investment in the Virginia Company was enhanced. However, soon after leaving London, as John Rolfe and his wife sailed down the Thames River, Pocahontas became very ill and died on March 21, 1617 while still in England.

Although Dale and Pocahontas were destined to never to return to Virginia, he wrote A True Relation of the State of Virginia, Left by Sir Thomas Dale, Knight, in May last, 1616. On a new military assignment, during a subsequent trip to the West Indies, he became sick and died at sea on August 19, 1619 of a fever.

Legacy

References

Additional reading

  • Scarboro, D. Dewey The Establisher: The Story of Sir Thomas Dale, Old Mountain Press, Fayetteville, NC ISBN 1-931575-58-4

External links

Preceded by
George Percy		Colonial Governor of Virginia
1611		Succeeded by
Thomas Gates
Preceded by
Thomas Gates		Colonial Governor of Virginia
1614-1616		Succeeded by
George Yeardley


 •  • [ e]
Colonial Governors of Virginia
Wingfield • Ratcliffe • Scrivener • Smith • Percy • Gates • De La Warr • Percy • Dale • Gates • Dale • Yeardley • Argall • Yeardley • Wyatt • Yeardley • West • Pott • Harvey • West • Harvey • Wyatt • Berkeley • Bennett • Digges • Mathews • Berkeley • Colepeper • Howard of Effingham • Andros • Nicholson • Nott • Jenings • Hunter • Orkney (absentee) • Spotswood • "King" Carter • Gooch • Albemarle (absentee) • Gooch • Lee • Dinwiddie • Loudoun • Fauquier • Amherst (absentee) • Fauquier • Botetourt • Nelson • Dunmore
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The Colony of Virginia (also known frequently as the Virginia Colony and occasionally as the Dominion and Colony of Virginia) was the English colony in North America that existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American
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Bermuda Hundred was the first incorporated town in the English colony of Virginia. It was founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1613, six years after Jamestown. At the southwestern edge of the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers opposite City Point, Bermuda Hundred was a port
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City Point was a town in Prince George County, Virginia in the state of Virginia. Now extinct, the town became part of the independent city of Hopewell in 1923. City Point is now considered a neighborhood of Hopewell.
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The "Citie of Henricus" , also known as Henricopolis or Henrico Town, was a city founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around Jamestown Settlement, Virginia. It was named for Prince Henry, the eldest son of King James I.
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The London Company (also called the Charter of the Virginia Company of London) was an English joint stock company established by royal charter by James I of England on April 10, 1606 with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.
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The Colony of Virginia (also known frequently as the Virginia Colony and occasionally as the Dominion and Colony of Virginia) was the English colony in North America that existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American
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Thomas West, 3rd (or 12th) Baron De La Warr (July 9, 1577 – June 7, 1618), was the Englishman after whom the bay, river, American Indian tribe and state all later called "Delaware" were named.
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This article may be too long.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page and help summarize or split the content into subarticles of an article series. Located on Jamestown Island in the Virginia Colony, was founded on May 14, 1607.
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James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scots as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James I.

He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, when he was only one year old, succeeding his mother Mary, Queen of Scots.
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Sir Thomas Gates (fl. 1585-1621), followed George Percy as governor of Jamestown, the English colony of Virginia (now the Commonwealth of Virginia, part of the United States of America).
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Dale's Code was a system of laws, formally known as the "Lawes Divine, Morall, and Martiall," enacted in 1611 by the Governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale. The code constructed a rather authoritarian system of government for Virginia by establishing a "single ruling group" that
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The James River in the U.S. state of Virginia is 660 km (410 miles) long including its Jackson River source and drains a watershed comprising 27,019 km² (10,432 square miles). The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.
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James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scots as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James I.

He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, when he was only one year old, succeeding his mother Mary, Queen of Scots.
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Chesterfield County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. As of the 2006 population estimate, the county's population has risen to 306,000.
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Appomattox River

The Appomattox River at Matoaca, Virginia


Country | United States
State | Virginia
Major cities | Petersburg,Tri-cities
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North America is a continent [1] in the Earth's northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the south and west
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Motto
"Quo Fata Ferunt"   (Latin)
"Whither the Fates Carry [Us]"
Anthem
God Save the Queen (official)
Hail to Bermuda (unofficial)
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Sea Venture was a 17th-century English sailing ship, the wrecking of which in Bermuda is widely thought to have been the inspiration for Shakespeare's The Tempest. She was the flagship of the Virginia Company, and was a highly unusual vessel for her day.
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The "Citie of Henricus" , also known as Henricopolis or Henrico Town, was a city founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around Jamestown Settlement, Virginia. It was named for Prince Henry, the eldest son of King James I.
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Indian massacre of 1622 (also known as the Jamestown Massacre) occurred in the Virginia Colony on Good Friday, March 22, 1622. About 347 people [1], or almost one-third of the English population of Jamestown, were killed by a coordinated series of surprise attacks
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Bermuda Hundred was the first incorporated town in the English colony of Virginia. It was founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1613, six years after Jamestown. At the southwestern edge of the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers opposite City Point, Bermuda Hundred was a port
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City Point was a town in Prince George County, Virginia in the state of Virginia. Now extinct, the town became part of the independent city of Hopewell in 1923. City Point is now considered a neighborhood of Hopewell.
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Dutch Gap is located on the James River in Chesterfield County, Virginia near the site of the lost 17th century city of Henricus.

In 1611, Sir Thomas Dale, according to a method he had learned while campaigning in Holland, cut across a neck of land a ditch which became known
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Holland is a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands with a population of 6.1 million people. Holland was a county of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the Count of Holland, and later became the dominant province of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces
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Eastern Shore refers to many places, including:
  • Eastern Shore of Maryland
  • Eastern Shore of Virginia
  • Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia
  • Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay

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Smith Island is located adjacent to the southern end of the Eastern Shore of Virginia in Northampton County near Cape Charles.

In 1614, Governor Thomas Dale sent 20 men, under Lieutenant William Craddock, to the area to establish a salt works and to catch fish for the
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Northampton County is a county located in the U.S. state — officially, "Commonwealth" — of Virginia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 13,093. Its county seat is Eastville6.
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Cape Charles, Virginia

Seal
Motto:
Location of Cape Charles, Virginia
Coordinates:
Country United States
State Virginia
County Northampton
Area
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