External links
- Pirates and Privateers by Rick Vermunt
- Selected Pre-1700 Imprints in the Navy Department Library
- Boteler's Dialogues
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Nathaniel Butler | |
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| Governor of Bermuda | |
| In office 1619–1622 | |
| Preceded by | Daniel Tucker |
| Succeeded by | Captain John Bernard |
| Governor of Providence Island | |
| In office 1638–1640 | |
| Preceded by | Robert Hunt |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Carter (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1577 |
| Nationality | English |
| Profession | Privateer |
Nathaniel Butler (born c. 1577,living 1639,date of death unknown) [1] was an English privateer who later served as the colonial governor of Bermuda during the early 17th century. He had built many structures still seen in Bermuda today including many of the island's coastal fortresses and the State House,in St. George's,the oldest surviving English settlement in the New World (the State House,completed in 1620,was the first purpose-built building to house the Bermudian parliament [2] ). He also has the distinction of introducing the potato,the first seen in North America,to the early English colonists of Jamestown,Virginia.
First serving in the service of the Earl of Warwick during his early sailing career,he was later appointed as governor of Bermuda,then administered by the Somers Isles Company (an offshoot of the Virginia Company),a post which he served from 1619 to 1622. During this time,he salvaged guns from a shipwrecked vessel and used them to arm the island forts then under construction including Southampton Fort [3] and those of Smith's and Paget Island in 1620 (the incident would later be recorded by John Smith in 1624). [4] While Governor of Bermuda,he played an indirect role in the development of the Bermuda rig,when he employed a shipwrecked Dutch boatbuilder. He would also be the first to introduce the potato to North America when,in 1621,he had a cargo of potatoes shipped to Governor Francis Wyatt of Jamestown. [5] He was the third governor of Bermuda.
After a brief stay in Jamestown the following year,during which he published a report entitled "Unmasked Face of Our Colony in Virginia as it was in the winter of the Year 1622" later presented to the privy council upon his return to London, [6] Butler was made an Admiral of the Providence Island colony,at the age of 61. He later found employ with the Providence Island Company during 1639 and 1640.
While on a privateering expedition in mid-1639 along the Spanish Main,he successfully captured a Spanish frigate at the harbour of Trujillo,Honduras,and extorted 16,000 pesos from the town's inhabitants. However,the frigate alone was considered a poor prize by the standards of the time and,suffering from inexperienced officers unfamiliar with the region (including future privateer James Riskinner),the expedition followed a very erratic course throughout the Caribbean and failed to capture anything else of value by the time of their return to Providence in September 1639.
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Bermuda was first documented by a European in 1503 by Spanish explorer Juan de Bermúdez. In 1609, the English Virginia Company, which had established Jamestown in Virginia two years earlier, permanently settled Bermuda in the aftermath of a hurricane, when the crew and passengers of Sea Venture steered the ship onto the surrounding reef to prevent it from sinking, then landed ashore. Bermuda's first capital, St. George's, was established in 1612.
A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or delegated authority issued commissions, also referred to as letters of marque, during wartime. The commission empowered the holder to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war. This included attacking foreign vessels and taking them as prizes and taking crews prisoner for exchange. Captured ships were subject to condemnation and sale under prize law, with the proceeds divided by percentage between the privateer's sponsors, shipowners, captains and crew. A percentage share usually went to the issuer of the commission.
The Colony of Virginia was a British, colonial settlement in North America between 1606 and 1776.
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.
John Rolfe was an English explorer, farmer and merchant. He is best known for being the husband of Pocahontas and the first settler in the colony of Virginia to successfully cultivate a tobacco crop for export.
Sir George Yeardley was a planter and colonial governor of the colony of Virginia. He was also among the first slaveowners in Colonial America. A survivor of the Virginia Company of London's ill-fated 1609 Third Supply Mission, whose flagship, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked on Bermuda for ten months, he is best remembered for presiding over the initial session of the first representative legislative body in Virginia in 1619. With representatives from throughout the settled portion of the colony, the group became known as the House of Burgesses. Burgesses have met continuously since, and is known in modern times as the Virginia General Assembly.
Sir Thomas Dale was an English soldier and colonial administrator who served as deputy-governor of the Colony of Virginia in 1611 and again from 1614 to 1616. Dale is best remembered for the energy and the extreme rigour of his administration in Virginia, which established order and in various ways seems to have benefited the colony, although he was criticised for high-handedness. He is also credited with the establishment of Bermuda Hundred, Bermuda Cittie, and the Cittie of Henricus.
Sir Thomas Gates was the governor of Jamestown in the English Colony of Virginia. His predecessor, George Percy, through inept leadership, was responsible for the lives lost during the period called the Starving Time. The English-born Gates arrived to find a few surviving starving colonists commanded by Percy, and assumed command. Gates ruled with deputy governor Sir Thomas Dale. Their controlled, strict methods helped the early colonies survive. Sir Thomas was knighted in 1596 by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex for gallantry at the Capture of Cadiz. His knighthood was later royally confirmed by Queen Elizabeth I.
Isla de Providencia, historically Old Providence, and generally known as Providencia or Providence, is a mountainous Caribbean island that is part of the Colombian department of Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, or The Raizal Islands, and the municipality of Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands, lying midway between Costa Rica and Jamaica.
Between 1612 and 1687, Bermuda had a series of militias under the Virginia Company, the Somers Isles Company, and the British Crown. In 1687, the first Militia Act was enacted.
Sir George Somers was an English privateer and naval hero, knighted for his achievements and the Admiral of the Virginia Company of London. He achieved renown as part of an expedition led by Sir Amyas Preston that plundered Caracas and Santa Ana de Coro in 1595, during the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War. He is remembered today as the founder of the English colony of Bermuda, also known as the Somers Isles.
James Riskinner or Reiskimmer was a 17th-century English privateer who operated from Providence Island against Spanish shipping during the late 1630s. A lieutenant on the ship Warwick, then part of a fleet under the command of Nathaniel Butler, he later took part in a privateering expedition under Butler between May–September 1639.
Daniel Elfrith was a 17th-century English privateer, colonist and slave trader. In the service of the Earl of Warwick, Elfrith was involved in privateering expeditions against the Spanish from his base in Bermuda. He was particularly known for capturing Spanish slave ships bound for the Spanish Main and selling the slaves himself to rival colonies in the Caribbean and the American colonies.
Jamestown, also Jamestowne, was the first settlement of the Virginia Colony, founded in 1607, and served as the capital of Virginia until 1699, when the seat of government was moved to Williamsburg. This article covers the history of the fort and town at Jamestown proper, as well as colony-wide trends resulting from and affecting the town during the time period in which it was the colonial capital of Virginia.
William Powell, was an early Virginia colonist, landowner, militia officer and legislator. Considered an ancient planter for living in the Virginia colony during its first decade, he was one of two representatives from what became James City County, Virginia in the first Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619. His former plantation, now across the James River in Surry County, Virginia is now within Chippokes State Park.
The English overseas possessions comprised a variety of overseas territories that were colonised, conquered, or otherwise acquired by the Kingdom of England before 1707.
The Providence Island colony was established in 1630 by English Puritans on Providence Island, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of the coast of Nicaragua. It was founded and controlled by a group of English investors, the Providence Island Company.
Sussex Camock or Sussex Cammock (1600–1659) was an English privateer who was involved in establishing the Providence Island colony, a Puritan colony on what is now Isla de Providencia in the western Caribbean. Sussex Camock was the brother of Captain Thomas Cammock.
Captain Daniel Tucker was an English colonial sea captain, member of the Virginia Company, member of the Somers Isles Company, treasurer of the Jamestown Colony and the notorious second Governor of Bermuda.
The Seaflower was a sailing ship built in England. Regarded as sister ship to the Mayflower, the Seaflower also transported settlers to the New World, specifically to Jamestown, Virginia, colony in 1621. It was most notable for helping settle Puritans on the Caribbean Providence Island colony in 1631. The Colombian Marine Protected Area and Biosphere Reserve surrounding the islands is named after the ship.