Bartholomew Gosnold

Bartholomew Gosnold (1571–1607) was an English barrister, explorer, and privateer. He was a key figure in the establishment of the Virginia Company in London and the Jamestown colony in America. He also commanded the first recorded European voyage to reach Cape Cod. Preservation Virginia has called him the "prime mover of the colonization of Virginia."

Early life and family

Gosnold was born in 1571 in Grundisburgh, Suffolk, England. The family home was at Otley Hall in Otley, Suffolk. His parents were Anthony Gosnold and Dorothy Bacon. His cousin was Henry Gosnold, a judge and friend of Francis Bacon.

Bartholomew had a younger brother, Anthony, born between 1573 and 1578, who later joined him in Virginia. A cousin also named Anthony Gosnold was living in Virginia as late as 1615. A 1578 will from his great-grandmother Ann Gosnold lists five sisters: Elizabeth, Margaret, Dorothy, Anne, and Mary.

He studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, and then law at the Middle Temple. At Cambridge, he likely met John Brereton, who would accompany him on his 1602 voyage to New England—the first Englishmen to land on that coast. He was also friends with Richard Hakluyt and sailed with Walter Raleigh.

In 1595, he married Mary Goldinge at Latton, Essex. Mary was the daughter of Robert Goldinge and Martha Judd. Martha was the daughter of Sir Andrew Judd, a wealthy London merchant and Lord Mayor of London in 1550–51.

More importantly, Sir Andrew Judd was also grandfather to Thomas Smith, a founder of the Virginia Company. One biographer noted that the marriage seemed arranged with foresight, uniting a man from the landed gentry with a woman from London’s wealthy merchant class. The couple had seven children, six baptized at Bury St Edmunds between 1597 and 1607: Martha (baptized 1597, died 1598), Mary (1599–1660, married Richard Pepys, great-uncle of diarist Samuel Pepys), Robert (baptized 1600–1681), Susan (baptized 1602), Bartholomew (baptized 1603), Francisca (buried 1604), Paul (baptized 1605, a Royalist clergyman ejected in 1643), and Martha (baptized 1607, married John Blemell in 1633).

Early maritime career

No records survive of Gosnold’s early maritime training. However, since he was trusted with a ship for a 1602 colonizing attempt in southern New England, he must have had considerable experience. His biographer suggests, based on circumstantial evidence, that he served under the Earl of Essex on voyages to the Azores in 1597–98. Many who took part in those voyages later became involved in Virginia colonization.

Organizing a colonial enterprise

Gosnold became an early and active supporter of English settlement in the New World. In the Elizabethan and Stuart eras, exploration and colonization were private ventures. The crown did not pay for them but granted monopolies to individuals or corporations to exploit claimed territories. This made the ventures profit-driven, similar to privateering.

A would-be colonizer like Gosnold had to raise money from private investors. As such ventures grew, large corporations emerged, much like those that controlled trade routes. Several obstacles stood in the way. Ireland was a cheaper alternative for colonization, especially in shipping.

Most investors in New World ventures were also involved in Irish projects. Thomas Smith’s son, for instance, took part in the first major effort to colonize Ulster (though he was killed early on). There was also great financial risk. Sir Walter Raleigh lost £40,000 on the Roanoke colony and pledged more to try to find the lost settlers.

A new colonial plan had gained acceptance by the mid-1590s. It came from a report by Edward Hayes to Lord Burghley, outlining the reasons and methods for settlement.

The argument was that colonization should start in northern Virginia (New England). The climate there was more like England’s, and the land could produce similar crops. The coast also had abundant fish prized in Europe, which could support a small foothold and eventually generate profit as more settlers arrived.

Expedition to Cape Cod and environs

English plans to colonize New England took concrete form in the early to mid-1590s with Hayes’s treatise. The first expedition from England to southern New England followed Hayes’s principles. Captain Gosnold secured backing to attempt founding an English colony in the New World.