Virginia Dare (August 18, 1587 - unknown)

Virginia Dare was the first white child of English parents to be born in America. She was born in 1587 in Roanoke Island, Virginia (now North Carolina)to Ananias and Elenor Dare, members of Sir Walter Raleigh's ill-fated colony that settled Roanoke Island on the North Carolina coast. Since no trace remained of the colony when the relief expedition reached Roanoke in 1591, the child's fate is not known. Virginia's grandfather was John White, a scientific illustrator and painter who had previously been to Roanoke as part of a failed expedition in 1585. Under the authority of Walter Raleigh, the elder White acted as governor of the new colony. Nine days after his granddaughter was born, White returned to England for supplies. His return was delayed by England's war with Spain and when he reached Roanoke again in 1590 the settlement had been abandoned and there was no trace of the colonists. Carved into a post was the word "Croatan," possibly signifying a native tribe or nearby island (Hatteras) but the colonists were never seen again. Nobody knows what happened to Virginia Dare or any of the other English settlers and the fate of the and the fate of the lost colony has remained a popular mystery for centuries. In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the issuance of a five-cent postage stamp to commemorate the 350th anniversary of Virginina Dare's birth. In the late 1990s a group of climate researchers concluded the Roanoke colony had been established during the worst drought in more than 300 years.


Pictured above is a so-called "Dare Stone". 48 carved stones were allegedly found in northern Georgia and the Carolinas between 1937 and 1941. The first bore an announcement of the death of Virginia Dare and her father, Ananias Dare, at the hands of "savages" in 1591. Later stones, brought in by various people, told a complicated tale of the fate of the Lost Colony. Later stones, each addressed to John White and signed with the name of Virginia's mother, Eleanor, called for revenge against the "savages" or gave her father the direction taken by the survivors. A stone dated 1592 indicated the survivors had reached a sanctuary in the Nachoochee Valley area and lived there in "primeval splendor." Another stone, dated 1598, indicated that Eleanor had married the "king" of the tribe, while another said she had borne the chief a daughter, the tribe was angry, and asked for White to send the infant girl to England. A stone dated 1599 announced Eleanor Dare's death and said she had left behind a daughter named Agnes. The stones have today been all but proven to be a hoax but there are still a few who truly believe in the authenticity of the stones.