James Davis ( – ) was an English ship captain and author. He was part of the expedition of the

Virginia Company of Plymouth The Plymouth Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of Plymouth, was a company chartered by King James in 1606 along with the Virginia Company of London with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of America between latitude ...

which established the short-lived

Popham Colony The Popham Colony—also known as the Sagadahoc Colony—was a short-lived English colonial settlement in North America. It was established in 1607 by the proprietary Plymouth Company and was located in the present-day town of Phippsburg, M ...

, also called "Northern Virginia."

Popham Colony

Davis was master of the ship ''

Mary and John ''Mary and John'' was a 400-ton ship that is known to have sailed between England and the American colonies four times from 1607 to 1634. Named in tribute to John and Mary Winthrop she was captained by Robert Davies and owned by Roger Ludlow ( ...

'' which sailed to the New World to the coast of Maine. He is believed to be the author of an account of this voyage entitled, ''The Relation of a Voyage into New England begun from

the Lizard The Lizard () is a peninsula in southern Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The southernmost point of the British mainland is near Lizard Point at SW 701115; The Lizard, also known as Lizard village, is the most southerly region on the ...

, ye first of June 1607''. He was the commander of the fort built on the Kennebec River, August 19, 1607, by the ''Sagadahoc'' New England Colony (the colony was made up of knights and gentlemen from

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

). The short-lived colony built its fort and log buildings near present-day

Phippsburg, Maine Phippsburg is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States, on the west side of the mouth of the Kennebec River. The population was 2,155 at the 2020 census. It is within the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area. A tourist d ...

, in August 1607. The ''Virginia'', a pinnace was also constructed to demonstrate shipbuilding potential of the new colony. When the Popham Colony closed in 1608 due to the severity of the winter, the ''Virginia'' was one of the vessels to carry the surviving colonists back to England, probably sailed by Davis.

Jamestown Colony

Records suggest that Davis and ''Virginia'' made at least one other Atlantic crossing, from England to the more successful

Jamestown Settlement Jamestown Settlement is a living history museum operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia, created in 1957 as Jamestown Festival Park for the 350th anniversary celebration. Today it includes a recreation of the original James Fort (c. 1607 to 16 ...

, a project of the

Virginia Company of London The Virginia Company of London (sometimes called "London Company") was a Division (business), division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for British colonization of the Americas, colonizing the east coast of North America between 34th ...

. ''Virginia'' was apparently one of the two pinnaces in tow behind one of the larger ships of the

Third Supply The Jamestown supply missions were a series of fleets (or sometimes individual ships) from 1607 to around 1611 that were dispatched from England by the London Company (also known as the Virginia Company of London) with the specific goal of initi ...

mission to Jamestown, which left Plymouth in 1609. They encountered a 3-day storm thought to have been a

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...

, resulting in the

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

of the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

of the fleet, the ''

Sea Venture ''Sea Venture'' was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission flotilla to the Jamestown Colony in 1609. She was the 300 ton flagship of the London Company. During the voyage to Virginia, ''Sea Venture'' encount ...

'', on

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

. ''Virginia'' survived the storm, and under the command of Davis (accompanied by his wife Rachel), arrived in the Colony on 3 October 1609. A possible brother, Robert, migrated to Virginia with Davis as well. At that time, Davis assumed command of

Fort Algernon Fort Algernon (also spelled Fort Algernourne) was established in the fall of 1609 at the mouth of Hampton Roads at Point Comfort in the Virginia Colony by Captain John Ratcliffe. A strategic point for guarding the shipping channel leading from ...

Point Comfort Point Comfort is a city in Calhoun County, Texas, United States. It is a part of the Victoria, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 603 at the 2020 census. Geography Point Comfort is located in northeastern Calhoun County ...

, where he survived the

Starving Time The Starving Time at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was a period of starvation during the winter of 1609–1610. There were about 500 Jamestown residents at the beginning of the winter; by spring only 61 people remained alive. The colonis ...

of 1609–10. Davis was a councilor for the north Virginia Colony. ''Virginia'' become a safe refuge when Indian hostilities erupted. She was also used to go inland to relieve Fort Algernon and attempt trade with the Powhatan confederacy. During this trip, Davis decapitated two Indians and left their mutilated bodies near the fort. On yet another inland foray, he destroyed a Powhatan village, burnt their corn and killed all men, women and children. Davis was soon in command of three forts.

Subsequent career

Mention of Davis continued. He is noted as commanding colonists at Henrico, Virginia in 1616. Most writers concur that Davis left his post in charge of the forts at Coxendale, near the present fort site of Henricus, and sailed for England aboard the ship "Treasurer", commanded by Samuel Argall in 1616. It is noteworthy that John Rolfe and Pocahontas were also aboard. And it is likely that he returned to Virginia in 1617 aboard the "George"; this is suggested by the fact that his son Thomas was deeded land in Virginia some years later for head rights accrued for two indentured servants whose passage he paid for on the 'George' that year.Captain James Davis, 1580-1623, The Early Settlement of New England & Virginia
by Kerry S. Davis, 2009. Retrieved September 2, 2009.

Death

The date of Davis' death is uncertain. Some sources believe Davis was among those killed (or wounded) in the

Indian massacre of 1622 The Indian massacre of 1622 took place in the English Colony of Virginia on March 22, 1621/22 ( O.S./N.S.). The English explorer John Smith, though he was not an eyewitness, wrote in his ''History of Virginia'' that warriors of the Powhatan "cam ...

along the

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

when 350 people (or one-third of the population) were killed. However, his name is not listed on official lists of the victims of the Virginia Company. Other records indicate that he died on February 16, 1623, at his plantation in Virginia. However, there are also others who believe that he may have lived as much as 10 years longer.

References

External links

Maine's First Ship
– a project to reconstruct ''Virginia''
Popham Colony
(archived)

(archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, James 1570s births 1620s deaths Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain Sea captains English travel writers 17th-century American writers People from colonial Virginia English emigrants to the United States People from colonial Massachusetts 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers People from pre-statehood Maine English male non-fiction writers Popham Colony