Ralph Lane
Sir Ralph Lane (c. 1530 – October 1603)[1] was an English explorer of the Elizabethan era. He was part of the unsuccessful attempt in 1585 to colonize Roanoke Island, North Carolina. He also served the Crown in Ireland and was knighted by the Queen in 1593.
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[edit] Early life and education
Ralph's origins have not been proven. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography he was "of unknown parentage and education".[2]
One theory is that Ralph was born about 1530 in Lympstone, Devon, England[citation needed] and that his parents were Sir Ralph Lane of Orlingbury[citation needed] and Maud Parr[citation needed], a cousin of Catherine Parr, the last queen consort of Henry VIII.
[edit] Career
Lane began serving the Crown in 1563 as an equerry under Queen Elizabeth I of England. His duties as an officer of the royal household included law enforcement and collection of customs duties.
Lane is best remembered for his attempt to establish a settlement on Roanoke Island at the request of Sir Walter Raleigh. Queen Elizabeth was looking for places to colonize and the Americas appeared ripe for English expansion. The voyage began on 9 April 1585, when Lane set sail from Plymouth with Raleigh's cousin, Sir Richard Grenville, a scientist who upon return to England wrote a book about his findings in the Chesapeake. The voyage on the Tiger proved difficult, as Lane quarreled with the aggressive leadership of Grenville.
When they finally arrived in the New World, Lane was left on Roanoke Island, Virginia on 17 August 1585 [3] with 107 colonists to explore and fortify the area. Almost immediately, Grenville and crew set sail for England. Lane served as governor of the island and had his men explore the area within a 130-mile radius. They erected a stockade to defend the outpost.
Contact was quickly made with the local Native Americans. The English treated them with suspicious harshness; on several occasions the colonists kidnapped Indians to extract supplies or information. In June 1586 Sir Francis Drake arrived at Roanoke and offered Lane and his men a return voyage to England that Lane readily accepted for fear of a weakened supply of food and increased tensions with local leaders. The Account of Ralph Lane first appeared in Richard Hakluyt's Principall Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation in 1589.
Lane later participated in other expeditions. In January 1592 he was appointed muster-master general of Ireland and was knighted the following year.
[edit] Death
In 1594, Lane was severely wounded during an Irish rebellion against the Crown. He never fully recovered and died in 1603.
[edit] References
- ^ Sir Ralph Lane, 1530-1603, Raleigh's First Roanoke Colony, Boston: Directors of the Old South Work, 1902, Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina Library, accessed 17 Jan 2010
- ^ Oxford University Press. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press
- ^ Sir Ralph Lane, 1530-1603, Raleigh's First Roanoke Colony, Boston: Directors of the Old South Work, 1902, Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina Library, accessed 17 Jan 2010
| Preceded by none |
Governor of Roanoke Colony 1585–1586 |
Succeeded by John White |
