Christopher Newport: The Privateer & Explorer and the Founding of Jamestown

The stories of the exploits of the Elizabethan explorers and sailors, of the discovery of new lands in the Americas and the first voyages to Virginia, have often been told and everyone knows who were the famous characters in this history.  But there were many less well-known members of this circle, and in this new biography by Jane Darlow, we learn of one of them, Captain Christopher Newport. 

History has not paid particular attention to him and he is not a household name like many of his contemporaries in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.  However, he was chosen by those who controlled the fortunes and policies of England at the time, to play a key role in their plans when they appointed him to carry the first settlers to the shores of Chesapeake Bay, to establish what became the first permanent English settlement.

In the Prologue to the book, the author tells us that Newport’s story may sometimes read like fiction, but it was not.  While the known facts may be sparse – he seems to have left no written record of his own - his story is true and compelling and she sets out to piece it together with details from contemporary letters and reports.   

Her vivid account of his early life as privateer and the previous attempts to form settlements in America before his first voyage to Jamestown goes a long way towards explaining the full impact of his contribution to his own country and to the country that would become the United States of America.  

Christopher Newport was born in Harwich, a port on the east coast of England, when Elizabeth I had been on the throne for only three years.  In a way, his story encapsulates the Elizabethan Age, the growth of England’s sea power, its determination to quell the power of its mortal enemy Catholic Spain, and to extend its island boundaries and influence in the world by claiming lands in a newly explored country that Sir Walter Raleigh named “Virginia” after the Virgin Queen.  

At the age of nineteen, he joined a trading expedition to Brazil but was forced to jump ship because of a row with the ship’s captain over the terrible conditions.  From then on he seems never to have left the sea except for short periods of time, and on one occasion for a whole year after he fell ill.  In his twenties, he became a privateer operating in the Caribbean and the Spanish Main: in his thirties, he fought with Drake against the Armada; and at a later point captured one of the largest Portuguese treasure ships (the Madre de Deus) returning from the East with a cargo worth about $40 million today.  

In his forties, in possibly the most important task of his life, Newport took the first settlers to Jamestown and re-supplied them on four grueling trans-Atlantic voyages.  (In my humble non-historian's opinion, Jamestown would almost certainly have perished had it not been for those four-re-supply expeditions; but, naturally, no such claim is made by the author). In his fifties, he sailed for the East India Company to trade in India and the Spice Islands, where he died in Bantam, Java, at the age of 56. He was buried at sea with full honors.  In the course of his life, he lost an arm in battle, commanded many fighting and merchant ships, married three times, became an Admiral, an exceptional navigator and a relatively wealthy man. 

I like to think that Captain Christopher Newport, who had such a pivotal role in the founding and survival of the English settlement that gave birth to "America," was a true self-made man and a worthy "American" had he stayed on these shores!               

The author set out to tell his story, supported by facts and historical detail, but this really is a history book that reads more like a novel.  What we know of Newport’s life, some of it gleaned from lesser known reports and references in public documents, and some taken from the provisions in his Will (an intriguing document that hints at a family drama and a wayward daughter named Jane), is gathered up and melded together.  He was not without flaws and was, undoubtedly, as ambitious and unyielding and at times self-serving, greedy and ruthless as any others in his time; and he had his detractors, not the least of whom was John Smith whose iron hold on Jamestown in its earliest days certainly helped to ensure its survival. 

Though overshadowed by many other more well-known contemporaries, Christopher Newport, a man of few words, grows in our knowledge and we come slowly to understand how he came to be the “worthy seaman and commander” who helped establish the beginnings of England’s fortunes in both hemispheres of the world.

Two passages in the book caught my eye because they are of particular relevance to our lives today.  That’s why we read history – supposedly - to learn about the past and the lessons it can teach us.  We forget these lessons at our own peril.

First passage: “in December that year (1592) there was an outbreak of the plague in London.  The authorities, afraid that people would leave the city and spread the disease, issued strict regulations to impose quarantine and restrict movement.”   

We might wonder why in 2020, with all the experience and technology at our disposal, so many world leaders (including our own) do not understand the importance of restricting movement during a pandemic.  

Second passage: “it was recorded that ‘20 and odd Negroes’ had been landed in Jamestown from a Portuguese slave ship and were sold in the market place.  They had arrived in August 1619, only one month after the House of Burgesses held its historic assembly in the church.”  

As the author ruefully notes, “while the foundation of democratic government was still in its infancy, so too was the institution of slavery that was to cast such a dark stain on the noble idea.”

All illustrations above are taken from the book: Captain Christopher Newport: The Privateer & Explorer and the Founding of Jamestown by Jane Darlow. 

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE FOR SALE AT: onslowpress.com