Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/48

34 Diamond, one of the ships in the great fleet of Sir Thomas Gates, who bore the commission of governor. During the temporary administration of George Percy, he was sent in October, 1609, to build a fort at Old Point Comfort, which was named "Algernourne Fort" in honor of President Percy's ancestor. The following December, going to trade with the Indians, he was led into an ambush and killed with fourteen others under his command, at Werowocomoco on York river. Smith calls him "a poor counterfeit imposter," because he used an alias, but there was no imposition. Ratcliffe made no secret of his double name, signing himself "John Ratcliffe commonly called." Very frequently in his time men wrote their names with an alias on account of a second marriage of their mother. Ratcliffe's mother probably first married Sicklemore and afterwards Ratcliffe. and Ratcliffe's real name was probably John Sicklemore.

Scrivener, Mathew, third president of the Virginia council under the first charter. He subscribed largely to the stock of the company. He arrived in Virginia with Newport in the "First Supply," which came in January, 1608, a member of the council in Virginia; participated in the expedition up York river in February, 1608; on the authority of Smith acting president of the council from July to September 10, 1608, and in January, 1609, at which time he was drowned in James river. Rev. Richard Hakluyt mentions in his will "Rev. John Scrivener, late of Barbican in the suburbs of the Cittie of London;" and as Scrivener is not a very common name, the aforesaid Matthew and John were probably members of the same family and doubtless relatives of Richard Hakluyt.

Smith, John, fourth president of the Virginia council, was the eldest son of George and Alice Smith, tenants of Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby; was baptized at Willoughby, January 9, 1580; travelled extensively abroad, where he encountered many perils by sea and land; distinguished himself by killing three Turks one after another, for which astonishing prowess he received from Prince Sigismund of Transylvania, a coat-of-arms charged with three Turks heads. That he was a man of distinction in England is proved by the fact of his selection by the king as a member of the first Virginia council. He sailed to America with the first colonists, but was charged by Wingfield and others as an instigator of Galthorpe's mutiny in the West Indies, and was kept under arrest till June 10, 1607, some three weeks after the landing at Jamestown. After the deposition of Wingfield from the presidency and the election of Ratcliffe, Smith acted as cape merchant, and was quite successful in procuring corn from the Indians. In one of these expeditions up the Chickahominy river he was taken prisoner by the Indians. He remained a prisoner about three weeks, during which time he was taken from town to town and finally conducted to Werowocomoco on York river to be put to death. From this peril he was rescued by Pocahontas, one of the daughters of Powhatan, head chief of the Powhatan confederacy, and soon after was suffered to return unharmed to Jamestown. Here he ran into a new danger, when the council, under lead of Gabriel Archer, condemned him to be hanged as responsible for the death of Emry and Robinson, who accompanied him to the Chickahominy; but Captain Newport arriving the same night (January 2, 1608) with the "First Supply," and inter-