Gosnold, Suffolk and America
1607 will mark the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in North America.
Captain Bartholomew Gosnold was a Suffolk sea captain and adventurer. According to the famous Captain John Smith, Gosnold was the prime mover of the expedition that led to the establishment of Jamestown, thirteen years before the Pilgrim Fathers, in the "Mayflower", reached America.
A recent discovery in Jamestown is thought to be the remains of Captain Gosnold, who is starting to be acknowledged as the "founding grandfather" of America.
Gosnold was born at Otley, and there are portraits of him and his family at Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich.
His daughter Martha was baptised at Bury St. Edmunds Cathedral, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the nearby Great Churchyard. Martha is the girl after whom Martha's Vineyard is named, and Gosnold also named Cape Cod.
The county of Suffolk, and in particular Bury St. Edmunds and Ipswich, are expecting to welcome lots of American visitors in 2007.
These visitors are in for a real treat. Suffolk, and the neighbouring county of Essex, are the Real England that you knew must exist somewhere. Look no further.
Posted by colin on Wednesday 27th December, 2006 at 9:32am