Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/111

 COLONIAL COUXXILLORS OF STATE

inauspicious environment but little is known, but it can scarcely have been a very happy one under the circumstances. However, she must have had powerful friends who would allevi- ate, in so far as it lay in their power, the dis- comforts of her position. In 1620 it was re- ported to the Virginia Company that Sir Ferdi- nando Weyman, who "adventured one hun- dred pounds with Lord La W'arr, besides the adventure of his person to Virginia," had died there, leaving an only child, a daughter, who had received a letter from Lady La Warr ex- pressing a willingness to have the aoove amount deducted from his Lordship's account and given to her. This the company "well allowed" and agreed besides to give the little orphan four shares of land in Virginia for the adventure of her father's person, he "being a man of worth."

Strachey, William; there appears to be

some confusion as to his identity, the ques- tion being whether the person prominent in the \'irginia colonization was the elder or younger of the two men of that name, father and son, who flourished at the time. Brown, in his "Genesis of the United States," inclines to the opinion that it was the former, but Sir Edward Strachey, of Sutton Court, the pres- ent representative of the family, believes.it to have been the younger man whose death did not occur until 1634. However this may be, the Strachey with whom history is concerned was something of an author and scholar, and in the dedication to Lord Bacon of his "His- torie of Travaile into Virginia Brittania," he claims membership in Gray's Inn, though his name does not appear in the index to Foster's "Gray's Inn Admissions." Before his adven- ture to Virginia, he seems to have done some travelling in the Mediterranean, as he men- tions visits to the "Coast of Barbary and Al-

giers, in the Levant." He was a member of the notable expedition of 1609, of Sir Thomas Gates, and was one of those cast away in the Bermudas with the chiefs of the party. He has written an account of the experience en- titled "A True Repertory of the Wracke and Ivedemption of Sir Thomas Gates upon and from the Islands of Bermudas." This work was published in the fourth volume of Pur- chas' "Pilgrims." He also compiled for the colony of Virginia "Laws Devine, Morall, and Marshall" (London, 1612). His most impor- tant work, the "Historie of Travaile into Vir- ginia Brittania," has already been mentioned. It was written about 1618 and published by the llakluyt Society in 1849. Strachey ar- rived in Virginia in May, 1610, with the rest of the castaways, and w^as shortly after ap- pointed to the council, and on June 12, of the same year, recorder general of Virginia. He went to England after about a year's stay in the colony. He was either father or grand- father of William Strachey, who came to Vir- ginia and died in 1686, leaving a daughter Ara- bella, who married Henry Cox, of Essex county. Another son or grandson, John Strachey, had a grandson, Di . John Strachey, who came to Virginia and has now descend- ants of the name of Mastin living in Alabama.

Dale, Sir Thomas, councillor and deputy governor (i\. v.).

Argall, Sir Samuel, councillor and deputy governor.

Hamor, Ralph, was a son of "Ralph Ilamor the elder, of London, merchant tailor." Both father and son were members of the Virginia Company in 1609, the ^^ather paying £133.6,8. The elder Hamor was also an in- corporator, and for a time, a director, of the East India Company. He died in 1615, leav-