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This article is from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

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Dare, Virginia

by William S. Powell, 1986

b. 18 Aug. 1587

Baptism of Virginia Dare. Image courtesy of the North Carolina State Archives, call #: T_78_8_1, Raleigh, NC.See also: Virginia Dare and the Lost Colony: Fact and Legend, Legend of White Doe

Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America, was the daughter of Ananias and Eleanor White Dare and granddaughter of Governor John White. Born on Roanoke Island, she was christened on 24 August by the name given by Queen Elizabeth to the new country. A terra cotta memorial to her was installed in St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street, London, after that church was restored following World War II.

References:

Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589).

Cornelius Hallem, The Registers of St. Botolph, Bishopgate, London, vol. 1 (1889).

Paul Hulton and David B. Quinn, The American Drawings of John White, 1577–1590, vol. 1 (1964).

William S. Powell, "Roanoke Colonists and Explorers: An Attempt at Identification," North Carolina Historical Review 34 (April 1957).

David B. Quinn, ed., The Roanoke Voyages, 2 vols. (1955).

An 1859 statue of an imagined Virginia Dare, by Maria Louise Lander at the Elizabethan Gardens, Roanoke Island. Image from Flickr user one30outerspace.Additional Resources:

Nieuwsma, Milton. "Virginia Dare`s 400th Year Of Mystery." The Chicago Tribune. August 18, 1987. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1987-08-18/features/8703030007_1_lost-colony-stone-hammond (accessed April 19, 2013).

Historical Background on the Lost Colony of Roanoke, PBS: http://www.pbs.org/opb/timeteam/sites/ft_raleigh/history.php

First English Colonies, NC Historical Marker B-1, North Carolina Office of Archives and History.

Roanoke revisited. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/fora/forteachers/roanoke-revisited.htm

Roanoke Colonies Research Newsletter. Online in the NC Department of Cultural Resources Digital Collections.

Learn NC resources about the Roanoke Colonies.

NC LIVE resources about the Roanoke Colonies.

Ashe, Samuel A. "Virginia Dare." Biographical history of North Carolina from colonial times to the present volume 4. Greensboro, N.C.: C. L. Van Noppen. 1906. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924092215460#page/n31/mode/2up (accessed April 19, 2013).

"Virginia Dare." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/151518/Virginia-Dare (accessed April 19, 2013).

"Chapter IV: 1500 - 1665: From boy apprentice in Fleet Street to sailing with the Pilgrim Fathers." St Bride's Church, Fleet Street. http://www.stbrides.com/history/chapter-3-1500-1665.html (accessed April 19, 2013).

Daves, Graham. "History, Not Myths." North Carolina University Magazine 14, no. 6. (March 1895) 310-311. http://books.google.com/books?id=rwM8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA310#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed April 19, 2013).

Daves, Graham. "Virginia Dare." North Carolina Booklet 1 (May 1901). https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/north-carolina-booklet-great-events-in-north-carolina-history-1901-may/413429 (accessed April 19, 2013).

Image Credits:

Baptism of Virginia Dare. Image courtesy of the North Carolina State Archives, call #: T_78_8_1, Raleigh, NC. Accessed August 29, 2012.

one30outerspace. "Virginia Dare at the Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island." Photograph. August 18, 2008. Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/one30outerspace/2798295970/ (accessed April 19, 2013).

Subjects: 
Precolonial period (pre-1600)
Biographies
Women
Authors: 
Powell, William S.
Origin - location: 
Roanoke Island
From: 
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 1986 | Powell, William S.