_Norfolk's historic links to North America and USA

Like so many coastal English counties, Norfolk could be relied upon to supply many of the original colonists to North America - Norfolk was the county that had the largest percentage of known passengers on The Mayflower and already had people in Jamestown, Virginia, including John Rolfe who married Pocahontas.

Norfolk's county motto is ‘Do Different’ and in the past so many Norfolk people wanted to do just that.

Here’s just a few of the famous characters in North America with links to Norfolk, UK.

John Rolfe

In 1585, John Rolfe (c 1585-1622) was baptised in the font at Heacham, Norfolk that is still in use in the parish church. He left for America, and fell in love with the Native American Princess, Pocahontas, when she was held hostage in Jamestown.

Their marriage, the first inter-racial one in the new colony, ensured peace between the Indians and settlers for several years and it could be argued this was the beginning of The Special Relationship.

Thomas Rolfe, the son of John and Pocahontas, was brought up at Heacham Hall (little of the original building is left) by his uncle Henry. He left for Virginia aged 25, and his granddaughter married Robert Bolling, from which marriage several Virginian families claim descent.

John Smith

Captain John Smith (c1580-1631), a Lincolnshire man by birth, left his apprenticeship in King’s Lynn and signed on as an adventurer on a Virginia-bound voyage.

Once in Jamestown, the onslaught of disease and starvation led to Smith being asked to trade with the Indians. He was captured by them but saved from death by Pocahontas, the young daughter of Chief Powhatan, also known as Wahunsenacah, who put herself between Smith and his would-be executioners. Despite what Disney claims, they didn’t have a relationship.

He became president of the Jamestown Colony and, perhaps because of Pocahontas, he worked with the Native Americans, in contrast to the massacres being perpetrated by the Spanish conquistadores.

He returned to England in 1609 having written prolifically about the natural abundance of the New World, whetting the colonising appetite of prospective English settlers.

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin's family came to north America by way of Flanders via Norwich.

The Founding Father's ancestors were among the first Flemish religious refugees to Norfolk, invited by Queen Elizabeth I, and in 1635 Franklin's grandfather Peter Fulger (or Foulger, born in 1617) found himself on board The Abigail bound for New England with his parents and servant Mary Morrill, for whom he paid £20 and would later become his wife.

 They were part of a great exodus that emptied the Eastern Counties.

Abraham Lincoln

The decision of 15-year-old Samuel Lincoln from Hingham to sail from Great Yarmouth to Salem in April 1637 helped start the chain of events led to his descendant, Abraham, becoming the 16th President of the United States.

Born in 1622, Samuel was baptised at St Andrew’s Church, Hingham, near Norwich. He emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, along with his employer Francis Lawes, a weaver from Norwich and his family.

Like many of the Hingham congregation he was a Puritan and found a safe haven in New England. His new town must have felt familiar; founded only four years earlier, south of Boston, it was called – Hingham. Samuel went on to have 11 children and lived until 1690.

The family moved from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, Virginia and then Kentucky, where Abraham was born.

His great-great-great-great grandson Abraham Lincoln became the 16th American President in 1861. A bust of Abraham Lincoln sits in Hingham church today, and the village sign depicts a group of emigrants waiting for a ship on a quay.

He led the United States through the American Civil War, famously abolished slavery in American, and delivered the Gettysburg Address, one of the most famous speeches which began: ‘Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal’.

Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine was born in Thetford on January 29, 1737. Educated at Thetford Grammar School, he emigrated to America in 1774 with the help of Benjamin Franklin.

His famous pamphlet Common Sense, written in 1776, advocated colonial America’s complete independence from Britain, and helped rally support for this cause.

It was his writings that helped save the American War of Independence and it’s claimed that it was Paine who wrote the American Declaration of Independence.

George Vancouver

Captain George Vancouver, born at 23 Conduit Street in King’s Lynn on June 22, 1757 and baptised at St Margaret’s.
He entered the Royal Navy at the age of 13 as a ‘young gentleman’ midshipman, and sailed with Captain James Cook on his second and third voyages of global discovery.
In 1791 he was dispatched to the Pacific with orders to survey every cove and inlet. This task took the best part of four years, by which time Vancouver and his crews had mapped North America’s west coast from San Francisco up to Alaska. Vancouver Island and the city of Vancouver in British Colombia, western Canada, are named after him.
The captain’s statue stands on the quayside in King’s Lynn, beside the iconic 18th century Custom House.

Thomas Willet

Thomas Willet (1605-1674), the first Mayor of New York, was the grandson of a Great Yarmouth man. William Towne from Great Yarmouth settled in Salem, and two of his daughters were accused of sorcery during the infamous witch trials. Also from Great Yarmouth (and buried there) was Sir William Gooch, 1st Baronet (1681-1751), who became Governor of Virginia after negotiating the Treaty of Lancaster, which insured protection from the native Indian tribes to the north and west of the colony.

Temperence Flowerdew

Daughter of Anthony and Martha, Temperance Flowerdew (c1567-1628) left Hethersett, near Norwich, to sail to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1609. Known as the first titled lady of America, she was wife of two Governors of the colony, sister of another early colonist, aunt to a representative of the General Assembly and first cousin to John Pory, Secretary to the colony. After the death of her first husband, Governor Sir George Yeardley, she was one of the richest women in Virginia.

John Pory

John Pory (1572-1636) was baptised in Thompson in the Brecks, and emigrated on the ‘Third Supply’, a fleet of 9 ships carrying stores and immigrants. He became the First Secretary of the Council of Virginia and was elected speaker of the first representative assembly held in America in July 1619.

William and Joanna Towne

William and Joanna Towne left their native Great Yarmouth, and settled in Salem, Massachusetts in 1640. Three of their daughters were caught up in the notorious Salem witch trials of 1692. Two of them, Rebecca Nurse and Mary Eastly, were found guilty of witchcraft and executed. A third daughter Sarah was also arrested but released. She later sued for unlawful arrest and the killing of her sisters; she was awarded three gold sovereigns for each of them.

Notable mentions…

Samuel Gurney Cresswell (1826-1867) returned to King’s Lynn after a five-year voyage of exploration, during which he became the first man to traverse the North-West passage.

New Hampshire was founded by John Mason, born in King’s Lynn in 1586. In addition to later becoming Governor of Newfoundland, he published the first reliable maps of the area and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Samuel Whiting, a rector of St Margaret’s church in King’s Lynn, emigrated to New England in 1636 and Lynn, Massachusetts is named in his honour.

Oh, and perhaps one to forget…

Raynham Hall was the home of Charles Townshend (1725–1767), Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth from 1747 to 1756, and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1766 to 1767. His introduction of taxes (known as the ‘Townshend duties’) on the American Colonies was one of the factors which led to the American Revolution. The town of Townshend, Vermont, was named after him in 1753.