Ananias Dare (1560 –1587); Eleanor White (1563-1599); Virginia Dare (1587-?)

Ananias Dare; Very little is known of Ananias other than the birth of his child Virginia Dare. Ananias was one of nine assistants granted a coat of arms and sent to Roanoke Island, along with his wife Eleanor, in 1587. Ananias was referred to as a gentleman "late of London." He was a tiler and bricklayer, Ananias belonged to a guild in England and his social status in England likely allowed for his leadership role in the new colony. Ananias was one of twelve "Assistants" in the government of the Cities of Sir Walter Raleigh in Virginia and a member of the "Lost Colony" of 1587 that arrived at Roanoke Island in July. Dare was survived in England by a son, John Dare, to whom his property was awarded by court action in 1597.  Robert Satchfield in 1594 was named as Ananias Dare's next of kin while John Nokes in 1597 appears as a blood kinsman. Eleanor White; While little is known about her life, more is known about her than most of the sixteen other women who left England in 1587 as part of the Roanoke expedition. Eleanor White of Westminster, London, England, was a member of the English Roanoke Colony in North America and the daughter of John White, the colony's governor. She married Ananias Dare. On August 18, 1587, Eleanor Dare gave birth to a baby girl. Eleanor and Ananias christened their newborn daughter “Virginia”. Virginia Dare; was the first English child born in the New World. The fact of her birth is known because John White, Virginia's grandfather and he was the governor of the colony. Virginia Dare was born in the Roanoke Colony in what is now North Carolina in August 1587. Virginia Dare was one of two infants born to the colonists in Year of 1587 and the only female child known to have been born to the settlers. Nothing else is known of Virginia Dare's life, as the Roanoke Colony did not endure. Virginia's grandfather John White sailed for England for fresh supplies at the, having established his colony. Because England's war with Spain brought about a pressing need for ships to defend against the Spanish Armada, he was unable to return to Roanoke until August 18, 1590, by which time he found that the settlement had been long deserted. The buildings had collapsed and "the houses were taken down". Worse, White was unable to find any trace of his daughter or granddaughter, or indeed any of the 80 men, 17 women, and 11 children who made up the "Lost Colony". Governor White found no sign of a struggle or battle. The only clue to the colonists' fate was the word "Croatoan" carved into a post of the fort, and the letters "Cro" carved into a nearby tree. They're houses and fortifications had been dismantled, suggesting that their departure had not been hurried. Before he had left the colony, White had instructed them that, if anything happened to them, they should carve a Maltese cross on a tree nearby, indicating that their disappearance had been forced. There was no cross, and White took this to mean that they had moved to Croatoan Island (now known as Hatteras Island), but he was unable to conduct a search. One popular poem, The White Doe: The Fate of Virginia Dare, written by Sallie Southall Cotton in 1901, claims that Virginia Dare was turned into a white doe by a jealous Native American witchdoctor. The story spawned a popular legend that if a white doe is seen near Roanoke Island it is Virginia Dare.