James Davis (c. 1575 in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

– 16 February 1623(?), at James City,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

) was an English ship captain and author. He was part of the expedition of the

Virginia Company of Plymouth The Plymouth Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of Plymouth, was a division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of America between latitudes 38° and 45° N. History The merchants (with ...

which established the short-lived

Popham Colony The Popham Colony—also known as the Sagadahoc Colony—was a short-lived English colonial settlement in North America. It was established in 1607 by the proprietary Plymouth Company and was located in the present-day town of Phippsburg, Ma ...

, also called "Northern Virginia."

Popham Colony

Davis was master of the ship ''Mary & John'' which sailed to the New World to the coast of Maine. He is believed to be the author of an account of this voyage entitled, ''The Relation of a Voyage into New England begun from the Lizard, ye first of June, 1607''. He was the commander of the fort built on the Kennebec River, August 19, 1607, by the ''Sagadahoc'' New England Colony (the colony was made up of knights and gentlemen from

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

). The short-lived colony built its fort and log buildings near present-day

Phippsburg, Maine Phippsburg is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States, on the west side of the mouth of the Kennebec River. The population was 2,155 at the 2020 census. It is within the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford, Maine, metropol ...

in August 1607. The ''Virginia'', a

pinnace Pinnace may refer to: * Pinnace (ship's boat), a small vessel used as a tender to larger vessels among other things * Full-rigged pinnace The full-rigged pinnace was the larger of two types of vessel called a pinnace in use from the sixteenth ...

was also constructed to demonstrate shipbuilding potential of the new colony. When the Popham Colony closed in 1608 due to the severity of the winter, the ''Virginia'' was one of the vessels to carry the surviving colonists back to England, probably sailed by Davis.

Jamestown Colony

Records suggest that Davis and ''Virginia'' made at least one other Atlantic crossing, from England to the more successful

Jamestown Settlement Jamestown Settlement is a living history museum operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia, created in 1957 as Jamestown Festival Park for the 350th anniversary celebration. Today it includes a recreation of the original James Fort (c. 1607 to 1614 ...

, a project of the

Virginia Company of London The London Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of London, was a division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of North America between latitudes 34° and 41° N. History Origins The territor ...

. ''Virginia'' was apparently one of the two pinnaces in tow behind one of the larger ships of the

Third Supply The Jamestown supply missions were a series of fleets (or sometimes individual ships) from 1607 to around 1611 that were dispatched from England by the London Company (also known as the Virginia Company of London) with the specific goal of initially ...

mission to Jamestown, which left Plymouth in 1609. They encountered a 3-day storm thought to have been a

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

, resulting in the

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

of the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

of the fleet, the ''

Sea Venture ''Sea Venture'' was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission to the Jamestown Colony, that was wrecked in Bermuda in 1609. She was the 300 ton purpose-built flagship of the London Company and a highly unusual ...

'', on

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

. ''Virginia'' survived the storm, and under the command of Davis (accompanied by his wife Rachel), arrived in the Colony on 3 October 1609. A possible brother, Robert, migrated to Virginia with Davis as well. At that time, Davis assumed command of

Fort Algernon Fort Algernon (also spelled Fort Algernourne) was established in the fall of 1609 at the mouth of Hampton Roads at Point Comfort in the Virginia Colony. A strategic point for guarding the shipping channel leading from the Chesapeake Bay, Fort Monro ...

at Point Comfort, where he survived the

Starving Time The Starving Time at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was a period of starvation during the winter of 1609–1610. There were about 500 Jamestown residents at the beginning of the winter. However, there were only 61 people still alive when the ...

of 1609-10. Davis was a councilor for the north Virginia Colony. ''Virginia'' become a safe refuge when Indian hostilities erupted. She was also used to go inland to relieve Fort Algernon and attempt trade with the Powhatan confederacy. During this trip, Davis decapitated two Indians and left their mutilated bodies near the fort. On yet another inland foray, he destroyed a Powhatan village, burnt their corn and killed all men, women and children. Davis was soon in command of three forts.

Subsequent career

Mention of Davis continued. He is noted as commanding colonists at Henrico, Virginia in 1616. Most writers concur that Davis left his post in charge of the forts at Coxendale, near the present fort site of Henricus, and sailed for England aboard the ship "Treasurer", commanded by Samuel Argall in 1616. It is noteworthy that John Rolfe and Pocahontas were also aboard. And it is likely that he returned to Virginia in 1617 aboard the "George"; this is suggested by the fact that his son Thomas was deeded land in Virginia some years later for head rights accrued for two indentured servants whose passage he paid for on the 'George' that year.Captain James Davis, 1580-1623, The Early Settlement of New England & Virginia
by Kerry S. Davis, 2009. Retrieved September 2, 2009.

Death

The date of Davis' death is uncertain. Some sources believe Davis was among those killed (or wounded) in the

Indian Massacre of 1622 The Indian massacre of 1622, popularly known as the Jamestown massacre, took place in the English Colony of Virginia, in what is now the United States, on 22 March 1622. John Smith, though he had not been in Virginia since 1609 and was not an ey ...

along the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

when 350 people (or one-third of the population) were killed. However, his name is not listed on official lists of the victims of the Virginia Company. Other records indicate that he died on February 16, 1623 at his plantation in Virginia. However, there are also others who believe that he may have lived as much as 10 years longer.

References

Sources

Biographies - James Davis
(Wash & NoVa Company)

External links

Maine's First Ship
- a project to reconstruct ''Virginia''
Popham Colony
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, James Sea captains English travel writers Writers from the Thirteen Colonies Virginia politicians English emigrants 1570s births 1620s deaths Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain People from Virginia People of colonial Maine 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers People of pre-statehood Maine English male non-fiction writers