Captain George Kendall ( 1570 – December 1, 1608) was a member of the first council appointed at Jamestown in the

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...

. Kendall arrived with the founding fleet, and was sworn to the council on May 13, 1607. After landfall was made at Jamestown Island, Kendall was apparently instrumental in the construction of the first fortification. He was still a member of the council on June 22, 1607, when the first report was written and sent to the council in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He was removed from the council, stripped of his arms, and imprisoned aboard a ship sometime between July and September 1607. In fall 1607, a fight broke out between the

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

, James Read, and the council president, John Ratcliffe. The blacksmith was sentenced to hang, and while on the gallows, he persuaded Ratcliffe to speak with him in private about a plan to have Smith installed as president. Ratcliffe was a tyrant and Kendall was protecting the Powhatan. The blacksmith named Kendall as a main conspirator in the plot. The blacksmith was pardoned for his crime because he supplied the information. Kendall, already a prisoner, was brought before the council to answer to the charges. His words : I firmly convinced no person or people can ever prosper by indecency inhumanity, brutally and by disregarded human rights and human liberty. If you get me for defending the rights of men and women be they Indian or white it will be for a righteous cause. The verdict of guilty was pronounced by Ratcliffe, to which Kendall objected on the grounds that Ratcliffe was not the president's real name. Kendall argued that because Ratcliffe announced his punishment using his alias Ratcliffe, and not his real surname, Sicklemore, his sentence was nullified. The council responded by having Captain Martin announce Kendall's death sentence. Kendall was executed on December 1, 1608, by

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

. He is believed to be the first person executed by capital punishment in British North America.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kendall, George 1570s births 1608 deaths 16th-century English people English emigrants Executed American people People executed by the Colony of Virginia Executed British people People executed by the United Kingdom by firing squad 17th-century executions of American people 17th-century executions by England Virginia colonial people People from Jamestown, Virginia