Strachey, William; there appears to be some confusion as to his identity, the question being whether the person prominent in the Virginia colonization was the elder or younger of the two men of that name, father and son, who flourished at the time. Brown, in his "Genesis of the United States," inclines to the opinion that it was the former, but Sir Edward Strachey, of Sutton Court, the present representative of the family, believe it to have been the younger man whose death did not occur until 1634. However this may be, the Strachey with whom history is concerned was something of an author and scholar, and in the dedication to Lord Bacon of his "Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia," he claims membership in Gray's Inn, though his name does not appear in the index to Foster's "Gray's Inn Admissions." Before his adventure to Virginia, he seems to have done some travelling in the Mediterranean, as he mentions visits to the "Coast of Barbary and Algiers, in the Levant." He was a member of the notable expedition of 1609,of Sir Thomas Gates, and was one of those cast away in the Bermudas with the chiefs of the party. He has written an account of the experience entitled "A True Repertory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates upon and from the Islands of the Bermudas." This work was published in the fourth volume of Purchas' "Pilgrims." He also compiled for the colony of Virginia "Laws Devine, Morall, and Marshall" (London, 1612). His most important work, the "Historie of Travaile into Virginia Brittania," has already been mentioned. It was written about 1618 and published by the Hakluyt Society in 1849. Strachey arrived in Virginia in May, 1610, with the rest of the castaways, and was shortly after appointed to the council, and on June 12, of the same year, recorder general of Virginia. He went to England after about a year's stay in the colony. He was either father or grandfather of William Strachey, who came to Virginia and died in 1686, leaving a daughter Arabella, who married Henry Cox, of Essex county. Another son or grandson, John Strachey, had a grandson, Dr. John Strachey, who came to Virginia and has now descendants of the name of Mastin living in Alabama.
