This book has been a long time in the making. To Chris Potter I owe an incalculable debt of thanks for his encouragement and support from the outset and dedicate the results to his memory: he was the very best of brothers. During the book’s gestation I benefited from the wise counsel of Anne Laurence, professor of history (now emeritus professor) at the Open University, and Qona Wright of British Library’s Rare Books and Music Reference Team. An early visit to view the Ferrar Papers at the Pepys Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge, was followed by several more; my thanks go especially to the librarian, Dr Jane Hughes; the deputy librarian, Catherine Sutherland; and to the master and fellows who generously gave their permission to quote from the papers.
In England the British Library became my second home. I wish to thank the staff of the Rare Books and Music, Maps, and Manuscripts reading rooms for their patience and good humour. Staff at the London Library were always helpful, and I am infinitely grateful for the library’s support in offering me Carlyle membership. In London these archival collections provided much useful information: City of Westminster Archives Centre (special thanks to archivist Alison Kenney), London Metropolitan Archives, Guildhall Library and the National Archives at Kew. I am grateful to the many specialists who shared their knowledge and their contacts: Dr Stephen Porter, archivist at the Charterhouse, who helped me trace an uncle of Lettice King; Lynne Berry OBE, who took me to a riotous Christmas lunch at the Company of Watermen and Lightermen in search of waterman’s daughter Jane Dier; Robert Crouch, former queen’s bargemaster, who introduced me to the working lives of Thames watermen; Justin Hopper, who ran an inspirational course on ‘Writing the Landscape’ at Tate Britain; and landscape historian Chris Sumner, who walked me from Tothill Street in Westminster to Billingsgate in the City, deftly revealing what remains of 1620s London. Outside London I record my thanks to Richard Smout and archival staff at the Isle of Wight Record Office & Archive, Newport; Peter White and colleagues at East Cowes Heritage Centre; archivist Mrs June Wailling at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies in Aylesbury; Steven Hobbs at Wiltshire and Swindon Archives; Lorna Standen at Herefordshire Archive and Records; Liz Jack, who helped me trace the Gloucestershire Brays; and Myles Sandys, who showed me the portrait of Sir Edwin Sandys at Graythwaite Hall and sent me off to view the tombs of Sir Edwin’s grandparents at Hawkshead parish church nearby.
My researches in and around Gravesend in Kent benefited from many events commemorating the 400th anniversary of the death of Pocahontas and her burial at St George’s church. My thanks go to the Reverend Chris Stone, rector of St George’s, and to speakers at a programme of commemorative talks, especially Malcolm Gaskill, professor of early modern history at the University of East Anglia, and Hazel Forsyth, senior curator of post-medieval history at the Museum of London. A high point for me was a gathering at Syon House attended by three chiefs representing the Powhatan tribes of Virginia for the unveiling of a plaque by HRH the Duke of Gloucester to commemorate Pocahontas’s stay in Brentford.
In September 2016 a conference on the Ferrars at Magdalene College, orchestrated by Dr Jane Hughes, provided many insights into the Ferrar family’s role in the early colonization of Virginia and their subsequent community at Little Gidding, which we memorably visited. Among many encounters at the conference I benefited in particular from conversations with David Ransome, Joyce Ransome and Emily Rose.
A generous Authors’ Foundation grant from the Society of Authors allowed me to undertake two research trips to Virginia, guided by contacts I had made a decade earlier. Historian Martha W. McCartney plotted for me the Virginian trajectories of those Jamestown brides I was able to trace and remained a constant source of help and advice throughout my researches, commenting perceptively on early drafts of the Virginian chapters. Ethno-historian and cultural anthropologist Helen C. Rountree similarly shared a lifetime’s experience working with North America’s indigenous people. Together we visited Jamestown’s historic sites and early settlements on the Lower James River and across the Chesapeake Bay on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Aside from our many conversations, I draw heavily on her insights into the clash of cultures experienced by English settlers in the early seventeenth century. Archaeologist Beverly A. Straube introduced me to the fascination of material culture and the way discarded objects speak for the people who made and used them, helpfully directing me to institutions holding early seventeenth-century artefacts from the James River settlements.
Among the collections I visited, special thanks go to these curators and staff: Dee DeRoche, Katherine Ridgway, Andrew Foster and Ywone Edwards-Ingram at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources; Karen Shriver, curator of the Flowerdew Hundred Collection at the University of Virginia Library; Merry Outlaw, curator of collections, Jamestown Rediscovery; and Kelly Ladd-Kostro, associate curator of archaeological collections, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. And I found much of interest in these research libraries: the Library of Virginia, Richmond; the Virginia Historical Society’s collection at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture; and my favourite of all, Colonial Williamsburg’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, where Susan Shames, decorative arts librarian, and Marianne Martin, visual resources librarian, were especially helpful.
Visiting places where the Jamestown brides lived or died was crucial to my research. Samuel M. Mencoff, the owner of Carter’s Grove plantation, generously granted access to Martin’s Hundred, a visit facilitated by estate manager Chris Price and illuminated by archaeologist Nicholas M. Luccketti, who walked me through the site and shed light on other early settlements. Chapter 16 records my gratitude to Nancy Harwood Garrett, an authenticated descendant of husband John Wilkins; and I was fortunate in my two guides to the James River: Captain Mike Ostrander of Discover the James, who introduced me to the Upper James; and Jamie Brunkow, riverkeeper for the Lower James, who took me out on the water with the blessing of Bill Street, chief executive officer of the James River Association.
My thanks go also to historian Nancy D. Egloff and education manager Anne Price-Hardister at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, who shared their vision of early women settlers; Captain Eric Speth, who paced the deck of the Susan Constant; Lyle Browning, who took me to the Falling Creek Ironworks; Cyrus Brame of the James River National Wildlife Refuge; Ellen LeComte in Richmond; John D. Pagano and Nicole Pisaniello at Henricus Historical Park; Traci L. Johnson, clerk of Northampton County Circuit Court, who gave generously of her time and resources; and Dr James Barton, whose personal experience of crossing the Atlantic under sail breathed life into the perilous conditions endured by early travellers.
Aided by Bonnie Hofmeyer, executive director of the Jamestowne Society, several descendants of Audry Hoare told me their stories, among them Virginia Ann Catalano, Elizabeth Minnich Kaminer, Elizabeth Ellen Jones and Fran McVeigh. And I enjoyed the hospitality of family and friends throughout Virginia, among them Bill Ritchie and Andrea Bartello; Gill, Mark, Katie and Billy Ruffa; Helen Rountree; and Nancy Harwood Garrett.
I record my debt to the Royal Literary Fund, which has supported my writing with fellowships at universities in London and as a consultant fellow, and to all my family, friends and fellow writers who have sustained me with their company and provoked my curiosity with their questions, especially Chris Potter, Lynn Ritchie, Rob Petit, Catherine King, Stephen Powell, Ros Franey, Louie Burghes, Philippa Campbell, Jude Harris, Sue and John Lloyd, Marina Benjamin, Esther Selsdon, Jana Teteris, Mary Griffin, Judith Wilcox and fellow members of the Gardeners Club, and Rita Cruise O’Brien, with whom I shared the joys and frustrations of writing about the early settlement of North America.
Finally I warmly thank Caroline Dawnay and Sophie Scard at United Agents for their help in getting this book off the ground; Margaret Stead, who commissioned the book and took such an early interest in it; and my publishers, Atlantic Books, especially Will Atkinson, managing director, and my editor, James Nightingale.