John Altham (1589 – November 5, 1640), also known as John Gravenor, was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Jesuit

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

who came to North America to preach to the Native Americans.

Life

He was born in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

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 ...

, in 1589. In November 1633, he and fellow Jesuit Andrew White set sail with Governor

Leonard Calvert The Hon. Leonard Calvert (1606 – June 9, 1647) was the first proprietary governor of the Province of Maryland. He was the second son of The 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632), the first proprietor of Maryland. His elder brother Cecil (1605� ...

and arrived in the Chesapeake Bay area in March 1634. Upon landing, he obtained a hut from its Indian owner, which he fitted up for religious service, and it was afterward known as "the first chapel in Maryland." He performed his missionary work among the Indians around

Kent Island Kent Island is the largest island in the Chesapeake Bay and a historic place in Maryland. To the east, a narrow channel known as the Kent Narrows barely separates the island from the Delmarva Peninsula, and on the other side, the island is sep ...

from 1634Curran, Robert Emmett. ''Papist Devils: Catholics in British America'', CUA Press, 2014, p. 48
/ref> till his death from yellow fever, in nearby

St. Mary's, Maryland St. Mary's City (also known as Historic St. Mary's City) is a former British colonization of the Americas, colonial town that was Maryland's first European settlement and capital. It is now a large, state-run historic area, which includes a recons ...

, in 1640.

References

*''Who Was Who in America, Historical Edition 1607-1896.'' Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1967. 1589 births 1640 deaths 17th-century English Jesuits People from Warwickshire {{UK-RC-clergy-stub