Virginia Laydon () was the first English child to survive to adulthood who was born in what would become the British
colony of Virginia
The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776.
The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...
. She was the second white English child in the US, after Virginia Dare (who was born in the Roanoke Colony.)
Laydon's mother
Anne Burras
Anne Burras (later, Anne Laydon) was an early English settler in Virginia and an ancient planter. She was the first English woman to marry in the New World, and her daughter Virginia Laydon was the first child of English colonists to be born in t ...
was one of the first two women to arrive in
Jamestown, along with
Mistress Forrest
Margaret Forrest (, known as "Mistress Forrest") and her maid servant Anne Burras, were the first two European women to emigrate to the Virginia Colony.
Arriving on October 1, 1608, in what is known as the Second Supply aboard the English ship ...
who employed Anne as a maidservant. In 1608, shortly after arriving at Jamestown, Anne married carpenter John Laydon. He had arrived in 1607 aboard the ''
Susan Constant
''Susan Constant'' (or ''Sarah Constant'') was the largest of three ships of the English Virginia Company on the 1606–1607 voyage that resulted in the founding of Jamestown in the new Colony of Virginia. Captained by Christopher Newport, she ...
.''
Virginia was born in October 1609 and baptized in Jamestown. She 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 ...
" that occurred in the winter of 1609–1610, during which more than 88% of the Jamestown colonists perished.
[1906. Heroines of Virginia. The William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine. Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture 15(1). 39–41. https://doi.org/10.2307/1915736.]
The family, including Virginia and her three younger sisters, is recorded among the residents of
Elizabeth City
Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank county, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 18,629. Elizabeth City is the county seat and most populous city of Pasquotank County. It is the cultural, economic and educational h ...
Parish in 1625.
See also
*
Virginia Dare
Virginia Dare (born August 18, 1587; date of death unknown) was the first English people, English child born in an Americas, American English overseas possessions, English colony.
What became of Virginia and the other colonists remains a mystery ...
*
Peregrine White
Peregrine White ( ) was the first boy born on the Pilgrim ship the ''Mayflower'' in the harbour of Massachusetts, the second baby born on the ''Mayflower''s historic voyage, and the first known English child born to the Pilgrims in America. ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laydon, Virginia
1609 births