1. Gabriel Archer was an early English explorer of Cape Cod, Chesapeake Bay, and Virginia.
18 Facts About Gabriel Archer
1. 2.
Gabriel Archer was born to Christopher and Mary Archer of Mountnessing, Essex in England, in either 1574 or 1575.
3.
Gabriel Archer graduated from St John's College, Cambridge in 1591.
4.
Gabriel Archer explored Cape Cod under an expedition which was headed by Bartholomew Gosnold.
5.
Gabriel Archer's records contain a description of most of the important events of the voyage, including finding and naming Cape Cod.
6.
Gabriel Archer entered Chesapeake Bay in an expedition in early 1607 to aid in setting up the Virginia colony.
7.
Later on, in the James River, Gabriel Archer sighted what he thought to be a promising site for settlement, which afterwards was known as Gabriel Archer's Hope.
8.
Gabriel Archer then gained a position as secretary and recorder for Jamestown.
9.
Gabriel Archer then aided in the trial of Edward Maria Wingfield, the first president of the colony, who was convicted for a string of minor charges after a shift in opinion against him because of a lack of food and great disease within the colony.
10.
Gabriel Archer held Smith responsible and subsequently put him on trial.
11.
Gabriel Archer called for the death penalty, citing Leviticus in support of why Smith should be hanged.
12.
Gabriel Archer then accompanied Newport on his voyage back to England, along with his enemy Wingfield.
13.
In England, Gabriel Archer reported to the Virginia Company about Jamestown, including by recommending the possibility of growing sugar there, or pineapples, though he did mention the possibility of profitably exporting tobacco.
14.
Gabriel Archer's return was a tempestuous voyage, including a hurricane that severely damaged the Blessing, the ship that he was on, and left some of the other ships broken or stranded.
15.
Gabriel Archer's grave was later located near a Jamestown church by the Jamestown Rediscovery Project.
16.
Gabriel Archer's parents were at some point fined for not attending Anglican services because they were Catholic.
17.
Gabriel Archer had attended Cambridge, which was known at that time, according to James Horn of the Jamestown Rediscovery Project, to be a university with some Catholic presence.
18.
The piece of evidence that initially started the theory that Gabriel Archer was a Catholic was a small silver box that was buried next to him.