Christopher Levett was an English writer, explorer and naval captain, born at York, England.
21 Facts About Christopher Levett
2.
Christopher Levett explored the coast of New England and secured a grant from the king to settle present-day Portland, Maine, the first European to do so.
3.
Christopher Levett was named an early governor of Virginia in 1628, according to Parliamentary records at Whitehall.
4.
Christopher Levett was the son of Elizabeth and Percival Christopher Levett, a York merchant and innkeeper, and was admitted a freeman of York as a merchant himself.
5.
Christopher Levett was admitted to the Company of Merchant Adventurers in the City of York, along with his brother Percival.
6.
Christopher Levett apparently grew restless, and instead turned his sights towards a career as an explorer.
7.
Christopher Levett served as His Majesty's Woodward of Somersetshire to King James I, and wrote a tract on timber harvesting that became the standard for selection of trees for the Royal Navy.
8.
Later, operating from his adopted home in Sherborne, Dorset, in the shadow of Sir Walter Raleigh and other adventurers, Christopher Levett became interested in the colonisation of New England.
9.
Christopher Levett became associated with Sir Ferdinando Gorges and was appointed to the Council for New England.
10.
Christopher Levett was granted 6,000 acres of land by King James I of England for a settlement in present-day Maine, which Levett proposed to call "York" after his birth city.
11.
Christopher Levett was helped with his settlement ambitions, according to some historians, thanks to a deepening friendship with George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, the favoured courtier who acted as advocate for the young Yorkshireman.
12.
From what we know of Christopher Levett, he seems more nuanced: his dealings with Native Americans seem solicitous, especially given the era, and his first wife was the daughter of a prominent Puritan rector.
13.
Christopher Levett apparently had his eye on New England's thriving fisheries, which English merchants had exploited for years.
14.
Christopher Levett was at the helm of HMS Susan and Ellen as part of Lord Wimbledon's fleet of 80 English and 16 Dutch vessels sailing against the Spanish fleet at Cadiz.
15.
Christopher Levett later complained bitterly of the experience, claiming that even as a Royal Navy captain, he'd been treated "no better than a meare slave" by those in charge.
16.
Christopher Levett never returned to Maine, and the small group of men he left behind in a stone house were never heard from again.
17.
Christopher Levett's patented lands eventually passed to a group of Plymouth merchants as Christopher Levett's attention was diverted to more pressing Naval matters.
18.
Fort Christopher Levett on Cushing Island, Maine in Portland Harbor is named for this early explorer.
19.
Letters he carried aboard the vessel Porcupine, addressed by John Winthrop and other leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to sympathetic friends in England, fell into the hands of Puritan foes in England, apparently after Christopher Levett's possessions were searched after his death.
20.
Christopher Levett had six children, four by his first wife Mercy More, who was the daughter of Rev Robert More, a Puritan rector in Guiseley, Yorkshire.
21.
Christopher Levett married a second time to Frances Lottisham, daughter of Oliver Lottisham of Somersetshire, and by her he had another two children.