Ralph Hamor

A TRUE DISCOURSE OF THE PRESENT ESTATE OF VIRGINIA by Ralph Hamor

First Hand Accounts of Virginia, 1575-1705

From the Virtual Jamestown Project

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browse?id=J1004

In 1609, Hamor and his father, both members of the London Company, joined the Second Charter of Virginia to sail to the New World as part of the large investment in settling a new colony in Virginia. Funded by the Earls of Salisbury, Suffolk, Southampton, Pembroke, and others, a fleet of nine ships set sail in May, 1609, with five hundred people aboard for what would be known as Jamestown. In the fall of 1609, Hamor returned to London, returning to Virginia the following spring. On April 9, 1610, Captain Hamor escorted Lord Delaware and about one hundred new settlers, including "Frenchmen to plant vines, and Swiss to find mines," aboard the "De La Warr", the "Blessing of Plymouth" and the "Hercules of Rye", back to Virginia. The three ships arrived safely in Jamestown on Sunday, June 20, 1610.

On June 22, 1610, Hamor was named Secretary of the Colony by Lord Delaware, and served from 1611 to 1614. As Council member, Hamor was granted land from the Virginia Company in June 1621, upon which he began to establish his own plantation. And, on November 28, 1621, the new Governor, Sir Francis Wyatt, appointed Ralph Hamor to the King's Council.

On Friday, March 22, 1622, Hamor, his older brother Thomas, and six of their male servants were attacked by the Indians as the colonists were building Hamor's new house in Warrosquyoake Shire The colonists drove off their attackers by using bricks, spades, and anything else they could get their hands on.[4] Of the roughly twelve hundred Jamestown residents, 347 were killed that day. Thomas was wounded with an arrow to the back during the attack, and his cousin Nathaniel Powell was killed.[9] After the attack, Hamor was ordered to escort the surviving Warrosquyoake Shire settlers to the safety of Jamestown Island, then to stand as command of the Martin's Hundred settlers who were also brought up to Jamestown.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Hamor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Hamor