Collaborative research notes for Captain John Smith of Jamestown (1579-1631)

Working Timeline

(Sources needed for all of this)

1580 Jan 9 - John Smith, the son of farmer George Smith and his wife, Alice Rickard Smith, is baptized at Saint Helen's Church in Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England.

1595 - John Smith is apprenticed to the wealthy merchant Thomas Sendall in King's Lynn, England.

1596–1599 - Having terminated his apprenticeship, John Smith serves in the Low Countries under Captain Joseph Duxbury.

Apr 1596 - George Smith dies. His oldest son, John Smith, inherits half of his estate, including seven acres in Charleton Magne.

1599 - John Smith travels to France with Peregrine Bertie, thirteenth baron Willoughby of Eresby.

1600 - Late in the year, John Smith joins the Habsburg armies, allied with Transylvanian forces, to fight the Turks in Hungary.

1601 - John Smith, fighting with a Hungarian regiment, is promoted to Captain of Cavalry.

1602–1603 - John Smith kills three Turkish challengers in hand-to-hand combat. In November, he is wounded and captured in a skirmish with Tatar allies of the Turks, and sold into slavery. Smith's owner, a young woman, sends him to her brother, the head of a government fief near the Black Sea. Smith kills him and escapes.

1604–1605 - John Smith returns to England, where he meets Bartholomew Gosnold, who is promoting a plan to plant an English colony in Virginia.

1606 Apr 10 - King James I grants the Virginia Company a royal charter dividing the North American coast between two companies, the Virginia Company of London and the Virginia Company of Plymouth, overseen by the "Counsell of Virginia," whose thirteen members are appointed by the king.

1606 Dec 20 - Three ships carrying 104 settlers sail from London bound for Virginia. Christopher Newport captains the Susan Constant, Bartholomew Gosnold the Godspeed, and John Ratcliffe the Discovery.

1607 Feb 13 - John Smith, aboard the Susan Constant and bound for Virginia, is arrested and accused of plotting to "usurpe the governement, murder the Councell, and make himselfe kinge."

1607 Mar - In the West Indies, colonists on the three Virginia-bound ships under the command of Captain Christopher Newport go ashore to hunt, fish, and rest. Newport builds gallows to hang John Smith, but Smith is spared when Bartholomew Gosnold and the Reverend Robert Hunt intercede on his behalf.

1607 Apr 26 - Jamestown colonists first drop anchor in the Chesapeake Bay, and after a brief skirmish with local Indians, begin to explore the James River.

1607 May 13 - The Jamestown colonists select a marshy peninsula fifty miles up the James River on which to establish their settlement.

1607 May 21–27 - Captain Christopher Newport, Captain John Smith, George Percy, and others explore the James River, making mostly friendly contact with the Kecoughtans, the Paspaheghs, the Quiyoughcohannocks, and the Appamattucks.

1607 May 28 - After an Indian attack, the settlers at Jamestown begin building a fort.

1607 Jun 10 - Finally released from arrest, John Smith takes his seat as a member of the Council.

1607 Jun 15 - English colonists complete construction of James Fort at Jamestown.

1607 Sep 10 - Council members John Ratcliffe, John Smith, and John Martin oust Edward Maria Wingfield as president, replacing him with Ratcliffe. By the end of the month, half of Jamestown's 104 men and boys are dead, mostly from sickness.

1607 Sep 19 - John Ratcliffe, president of Jamestown, designates John Smith the colony's cape merchant.

1607 Nov 9–15- John Smith makes three successful trading voyages up the Chickahominy River.

1607 Dec - While exploring the upper reaches of the Chickahominy River, John Smith is captured by a communal hunting party under the leadership of Opechancanough.

1607 Dec - Late in the month, John Smith is brought before Powhatan, the paramount chief of Tsenacomoco. He later tells of his life being saved by Pocahontas; in fact, Powhatan likely puts Smith through a mock execution in order to adopt him as a weroance, or chief.

1608 Jan 2 - John Smith returns to Jamestown after being held captive by Powhatan. Only 38 colonists survive, Smith's seat on the Council is occupied by Gabriel Archer, and the Council accuses Smith in the deaths of his companions. Smith is sentenced to hang, but the charge is dropped when Christopher Newport arrives with the first supplies from England.

1608 Feb - John Smith and Christopher Newport visit Powhatan, the paramount chief of Tsenacomoco, at his capital, Werowocomoco. Powhatan feeds them and their party lavishly, and Newport presents the chief with a suit of clothing, a hat, and a greyhound. The English continue upriver to visit Opechancanough at the latter's request.

1608 Jun - John Smith sends with Captain Francis Nelson a long letter he has written to a friend in England, describing the events of the last two years, and a map of the region. The letter and the map (later known as the Zúñiga map) are published in London as A True Relation.

1608 Jun–Sep - John Smith explores the Chesapeake Bay, without Powhatan's permission.

1608 Jun 2 - John Smith and fourteen men embark from Jamestown on the first of two major Chesapeake Bay explorations. They visit the Eastern Shore and the falls of the Potomac River.

1608 Jul 21 - John Smith and his party return to Jamestown after the first of two major Chesapeake Bay explorations.

1608 Jul 24 - John Smith embarks on the second of his two major Chesapeake Bay explorations. He and his party explore the Susquehanna, Patuxent, and Rappahannock rivers and negotiate peace between the Rappahannock and Moraughtacund Indians.

1608 Sep 7 - John Smith and his party return to Jamestown after the second of his two major Chesapeake Bay explorations.

1608 Sep - Christopher Newport returns from England with a plan to improve relations with Virginia Indians by bestowing on Powhatan various gifts and formally presenting him with a decorated crown. The subsequent crowning is made awkward by Powhatan's refusal to kneel, and relations sour.

1608 Dec - Christopher Newport returns to England from Jamestown accompanied by the Indian Machumps. John Smith, meanwhile, attempts to trade for food with Indians from the Nansemonds to the Appamattucks, but on Powhatan's orders they refuse.

1609 Jan - John Smith meets with Powhatan, the paramount chief of Tsenacomoco, at his capital, Werowocomoco. Against Indian custom, Smith refuses to disarm in Powhatan's presence, and the chief attempts, but fails, to have Smith killed.

1609 May - With the Jamestown population at about 200, John Smith sends a third of the men downriver on the James to live off oysters. Twenty go with George Percy to Point Comfort to fish, and another twenty go with Francis West to live at the falls of the James. The rest stay at Jamestown.

1609 May 23 - The Crown approves a second royal charter for the Virginia Company of London. It replaces the royal council with private corporate control, extends the colony's boundaries to the Pacific Ocean, and installs a governor, Sir Thomas West, twelfth baron De La Warr, to run operations in Virginia.

1609 Summer - John Smith attempts to purchase from Powhatan, the paramount chief of Tsenacomoco, the fortified town of Powhatan in order to settle English colonists there. The effort fails.

1609 Sep - Early in the month, John Smith sends Francis West and 120 men to the falls of the James River. George Percy and 60 men attempt to bargain with the Nansemond Indians for an island. Two messengers are killed and the English burn the Nansemonds' town and their crops.

1609 Sep - John Smith is severely burned during a trip down the James River when a stray match ignites his powder bag and sets his clothing ablaze.

1609 Oct - John Smith leaves Virginia. The Jamestown colony's new leadership is less competent, and the Starving Time follows that winter.

1609 Nov - Late in the month, John Smith arrives in England from Jamestown.

1612 - Two works by John Smith, A Map of Virginia with a Description of the Countrey and The Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia, are published in Oxford, England.

1614 Mar - John Smith sails for "North Virginia," a region he later names New England. After returning to England with furs and fish, he is authorized by the Virginia Company of Plymouth to plant a colony in New England.

1615 Mar - John Smith sails to New England to establish a colony, but returns to England after losing a ship in a storm en route.

1615 Jun - John Smith sails for New England again, but is captured by a French privateer. He returns to England in December.

1616 Jun - John Smith publishes his work A Description of New England.

1616 - Late in the year, John Smith visits Pocahontas in England and she chides him for neglecting their friendship.

1617 - John Smith attempts yet again to sail for New England, and is again thwarted.

1620 - John Smith's New Englands Trials is published.

1621 - John Smith asks the Virginia Company of London to reward him for his service during his time in Jamestown, but they refuse to do so. They also refuse to employ him as a military commander.

1623 May - In response to the reports of the deaths of hundreds of settlers at Jamestown, a royal commission is formed to investigate the Virginia Company of London. John Smith testifies during the investigation, and it is during this time that he revises his Generall Historie.

1624 - John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles, which emphasizes treacherous natives, a heroic Smith, and the one "good" Indian, "Princess Pocahontas," is published. Historians have since questioned its reliability.

1626 - John Smith's An Accidence, or The Pathway to Experience is published.

1629 - John Smith interviews several Virginia settlers then visiting England and inquires about conditions in the colony.

1630 - The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith is published.

1631 - Advertisements for the unexperienced Planters of New England, or anywhere, by John Smith, is published.

1631 Jun 21 - A seriously ill John Smith makes his will and dies the same day. He is buried in Saint Sepulchre, an Anglican church in London.