Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/110

 8o

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

name was second in the royal patent of Apr. lo, 1606, he took no active part in colonial affairs until 1609, when he sailed with Sir Thomas Gates and Capt. Newport in the expedition of that year. He was fifty-odd years of age at the time of his sailing and had already dis- tinguished himself in the military and naval service, having commanded several expeditions and, in 1595, accompanied Capt. Amias Pres- ton to the West Indies. He was knighted at Whitehall, July 22^, 1603, in reward for his services, and represented Lyme Regis in parlia- ment for a inunber of years. He w'as ap- pointed admiral for the colony, and was on the "Sea Adventure" on the way to take com- mand, when she was cast away. Sir George Somers was the first on the shipwrecked ves- sel to sight land, but strange to say, his dis- covery was not hailed with the joy that men in such straits are prone to feel. The reason for this is explained by the fact that the shores he had seen were those of a Bermudan island, supposed by mariners to be inhabited by fairies and devils. However, in a choice be- tween them and the deep sea, the party, with more prudence than religion, chose the former and were soon comfortably landed, where, to their further comfort, they found the fairies to be flocks of birds upon the shore and the devils, herds of wild swine running in the wood. After sojourning there until they had completed the construction of two vessels to be their transport, they set sail therein for Virginia. But Somers was not destined to more than reach the promised land, for, find- ing the colonists in the sorriest of plights, and well nigh starving to death, he volunteered to return at once to the fruitful Bermudas for supplies. He started at once, but adverse winds drove him as far North as New Eng- land before he finally reached his destination.

His death occurred on the 9th of Nov., 1610, shortly after his arrival in Bermuda, and it is stated that it was occasioned by a too hearty repast on one of the Bermuda "devils," with which he had intended lading his ships for the colony. Feeling the approach of death, he ex- horted his followers to perform the task they had undertaken without him. This, however, they did not do. They buried his heart in the island and his cedar ship with his dead body ai last arrived at Whitechurch, in Dorsetshire, about Feb. 26, 161 1, where it was buried with military honors.

Gates, Sir Thomas, governor. 1609 (q. v.).

Weyman, Sir Ferdinando, had every reason to regard the Virginia colony as the appropriate scene for his endeavors. It might almost be called a family matter, related, as he was, on all sides to the prominent figures in the enter- prise. He was a cousin of Thomas Lord Dela- ware, governor of Virginia, and of Francis and John West who played distinguished parts there, the latter being also governor. His wife was a sister-in-law of Sir Francis Wyatt, gov- ernor of Virginia, and a niece of Sir George Sandys, the poet, and treasurer of the colony Another cousin, Penelope West, married Her- bert Pelham and of their sixteen children, one was the first treasurer of Harvard College, and another the wife of Gov. Bellingham of Massachusetts. Weyman was born in Cas- well, Oxfordshire, the son of Thomas Wey- man, Esq., of that place, and came to the colony in 1610. On June 12, of that year, he was appointed admiral and master of the horse. But W^eyman was not destined to en- joy his honors long, for, as was the case with so many of his fellows, he died shortly after his arrival in the colony, leaving a young daughter. Of this young lady's life in that