Virginia Dare was born in the Roanoke Colony
On this day · 18 August 1587
The first English child born in the Americas arrived weeks before her colony vanished without a trace.
On August 18, 1587, Virginia Dare was born on Roanoke Island, in what is now North Carolina, the first English child born in the Americas. Her grandfather, Governor John White, chose the name to mark her birth in the colony of “Virginia.”
Nine days later, White sailed for England to fetch supplies. War with Spain and the looming Armada stranded him; it took three years to secure passage back. When he finally landed in 1590, the settlement was empty. The roughly 115 colonists were gone, leaving only the word “CROATOAN” carved into a post.
No confirmed trace of Virginia Dare or the others has ever been found.
The fate of the “Lost Colony” remains one of early America’s most durable mysteries, fueling centuries of theories about migration, massacre, or assimilation with nearby Indigenous peoples. Virginia Dare herself, barely documented, long ago crossed from history into legend.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
