US colonial Virginia minister 1610?1624
This article is about the Colonial Virginia minister. For modern British sprinter, see
Richard Buck
. For the Canadian psychiatrist, see
Richard Bucke
.
Richard Buck
|
---|
![Reverend Richard Buck Baptizing Pocahontas](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/Reverend_Richard_Buck_Baptizing_Pocahontas.webp/220px-Reverend_Richard_Buck_Baptizing_Pocahontas.webp.png) Reverend Richard Buck Baptizing Pocahontas
|
Born
| 1582
|
---|
Died
| 1623 (age 41 or 42)
|
---|
Nationality
| English
|
---|
Occupation
| Minister
|
---|
Known for
| Chaplain at first session
of
Virginia General Assembly
|
---|
Spouse
| Elizabeth Browne
|
---|
Reverend
Richard Buck
was a minister to the
Colony of Virginia
at
Jamestown, Virginia
from 1610 to 1624.
[1]
He was chaplain of the first session of the
Virginia General Assembly
, which was composed of the
House of Burgesses
and the
Virginia Governor's Council
. This assembly met in the church at Jamestown on July 30, 1619, as the first elected assembly and law making body in
colonial America
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Richard Buck was born in 1582 in
Wymondham
,
Leicestershire
, England.
[2]
Buck was a graduate of
Oxford University
.
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Recruitment and journey
[
edit
]
Buck was recruited to serve as minister to the
Colony of Virginia
at Jamestown after the colony's first minister, Reverend
Robert Hunt
, died in 1608.
[6]
Dr.
Thomas Ravis
, the Bishop of London, had recommended Buck for the appointment.
[4]
Buck, his wife and their two daughters sailed for Jamestown in 1609 with the colony's new governor, Sir
Thomas Gates
aboard the
Sea Venture
.
[6]
[7]
The
Sea Venture
was wrecked in a storm off the coast of
Bermuda
and the passengers and crew did not arrive at Jamestown until May 23, 1610, nine months after the other ships of the
Third Supply
.
[3]
[6]
[7]
While in Bermuda, Buck baptized the newborn daughter of
John Rolfe
and his first wife, Sarah Hacker.
[8]
The child, named Bermuda, died afterwards.
[8]
[9]
Sarah died before Rolfe arrived in Virginia.
[9]
Arrival and resupply
[
edit
]
When Gates and the other colonists from the
Sea Venture
arrived at Jamestown, they found only 60 of the previous 500 colonists still alive after the harsh winter of 1609?1610 which became known as the "
Starving Time
".
[10]
[11]
Buck led the colonists in a "zealous and sorrowful prayer", which commemorated those who were deceased.
[12]
[13]
Reverend Buck immediately gained the respect and affection of the colonists as his prayer reminded them of their esteemed first preacher, Robert Hunt.
[6]
John Rolfe
praised Buck as a "veerie good preacher".
[6]
In the following month,
Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr
arrived at Jamestown with supplies and new colonists and assumed the office of governor on June 10, 1610.
[14]
He was just in time to persuade the original settlers, who were nearly out of food and supplies and had boarded their ships to leave, not to return to England.
[14]
West's first act was to kneel and say a silent prayer upon his arrival.
[14]
[15]
Then he went to the chapel to hear a sermon from Reverend Buck.
[14]
[15]
Life at Jamestown
[
edit
]
Buck's duties included leading prayers twice a day and preaching on Thursday and Sunday.
[6]
He officiated at religious and public events.
[6]
Some sources state that Buck presided over the wedding of John Rolfe and
Pocahontas
on April 5, 1614.
[16]
[17]
Others say that
Alexander Whitaker
, a vicar who settled at
Henricus
, presided at the wedding of Rolfe and Pocahontas.
[18]
The
Virginia Company
set aside 100 acres of land for
glebe
lands but the Buck family lived near the church in the Jamestown fort.
[6]
In 1619, Buck acquired 750 acres of land in the "Neck-of-Land", which was separated from the north side of Jamestown Island by water.
[6]
The location adjacent to Jamestown was an obvious area for expansion of the colony since it was close to the fort.
[6]
Buck had indentured servants develop the land.
[6]
These servants included caretaker Richard Kingsmill (sometimes spelled Kingsmell), who later became a large property owner.
[6]
[19]
In 1620, William Fairfax sold 12 acres in Jamestown, including a home and an outbuilding, to Buck.
[6]
First Virginia General Assembly
[
edit
]
Reverend Buck opened the first session of the
Virginia General Assembly
, which convened in the church at Jamestown on July 30, 1619.
[3]
[6]
[20]
He prayed "that it would please God to guide and sanctifie all our proceedings to his owne glory and the good of this Plantation."
[3]
[6]
[20]
[21]
Death and family
[
edit
]
He married Elizabeth Browne on 7 July 1607 in Norfolk, England. Elizabeth was the daughter of Sir George Browne and a granddaughter of
Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu
and
Magdalen Dacre
.
Buck died at Jamestown in 1624.
[6]
[22]
According to historians Frank E. Gizzard and Dennis Boyd Smith, Buck's wife died within a few months of her husband.
[6]
He and Elizabeth had six children who survived to adulthood.
[6]
They were Mara,
Benoni
, Gercian, Peleg, Elizabeth, who became the wife of Sergeant
Thomas Crump
(or Crampe), later a member of the
House of Burgesses
, and Bridget, who married John Burras, a brother of
Anne Burras
.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Some sources shown below, such as Chandler, 1907, p. 195, state that Buck died in 1623.
- ^
a
b
Grizzard, Frank E. and Dennis Boyd Smith.
Jamestown Colony: A Political, Social and Cultural History
. Santa Barbara, CA : ABC-CLIO, 2007.
ISBN
978-1-85109-637-4
. p. 32.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Tyler, Lyon Gardiner
, ed.
Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography
. Volume 1. New York, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915.
OCLC
229136302
. Retrieved May 5, 2013. p. 198.
- ^
a
b
Campbell, Charles.
History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia
. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1860.
OCLC
2109795
. p. 95.
- ^
Some of the sources such as Grizzard and Tyler state that Buck also studied at
Cambridge University's
Caius
. Alexander Whitaker, a minister at
Henricus
(Henrico) in the Virginia colony from 1611 to 1616/1617, was the son of a Cambridge professor of divinity and a graduate of Cambridge. Campbell, 1860, pp. 106–107.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
Grizzard, 2007, p. 33.
- ^
a
b
Chandler, Julian Alvin Carroll and Thomas Butler Thames.
Colonial Virginia
. Richmond, VA: The Times-Dispatch Company, 1907.
OCLC
554689
. p. 194.
- ^
a
b
Tyler, 1900. p. 87.
- ^
a
b
Tyler, 1900. p. 75.
- ^
Bryan, Corbin Braxton.
The Church at Jamestown
in Clark, W. M., ed.
Colonial Churches in the Original Colony of Virginia
. 2d. ed. Richmond, VA: Southern Churchman Company, 1908.
OCLC
1397138
. Retrieved May 5, 2013. p. 20.
- ^
Beverley, Robert.
The History of Virginia in Four Parts
. Richmond, VA: J. W. Randolph, 1855.
OCLC
5837141
. 2d revised edition originally published London: 1722. p. 26.
- ^
Campbell, 1860 p. 97.
- ^
Neill, Edward D.
History of the Virginia Company of London
. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell, 1869.
OCLC
28459826
. p. 33.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Campbell, 1860. p. 98.
- ^
a
b
Neill, 1869, p. 42.
- ^
Fischer, David H.
Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America
. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1989.
ISBN
978-0-19-503794-4
. p. 233.
- ^
Some sources, such as Tyler, 1900, p. 76, state the year was 1614.
- ^
Campbell, 1869, p. 109.
- ^
Hatch, Charles E.
The First Seventeen Years Virginia, 1607-1624
. Williamsburg, VA: Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corp., 1957.
OCLC
965922
. p. 109.
- ^
a
b
Bryan, 1908, p. 22
. Retrieved May 5, 2013.
- ^
Glover, Lorri and Daniel Blake Smith.
The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America
. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC: 2008.
ISBN
978-0-8050-9025-3
. Retrieved May 5, 2013. pp. 261–262.
- ^
Chandler, 1907, p. 195, gives the year of Buck's death as 1623. This difference could be due to the use of the old calendar.
References
[
edit
]
- Beverley, Robert.
The History of Virginia in Four Parts
. Richmond, VA: J. W. Randolph, 1855.
OCLC
5837141
. 2d revised edition originally published London: 1722.
- Bryan, Corbin Braxton.
The Church at Jamestown
in Clark, W. M., ed.
Colonial Churches in the Original Colony of Virginia
. 2d. ed. Richmond, VA: Southern Churchman Company, 1908.
OCLC
1397138
.
- Campbell, Charles.
History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia
. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1860.
OCLC
2109795
.
- Chandler, Julian Alvin Carroll and Thomas Butler Thames.
Colonial Virginia
. Richmond, VA: The Times-Dispatch Company, 1907.
OCLC
554689
.
- Fischer, David Hackett
.
Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America
. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1989.
ISBN
978-0-19-503794-4
.
- Glover, Lorri and Daniel Blake Smith.
The Shipwreck That Saved Jamestown: The Sea Venture Castaways and the Fate of America
. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC: 2008.
ISBN
978-0-8050-9025-3
. Retrieved May 5, 2013.
- Grizzard, Frank E. and Dennis Boyd Smith.
Jamestown Colony: A Political, Social and Cultural History
. Santa Barbara, CA : ABC-CLIO, 2007.
ISBN
978-1-85109-637-4
.
- Hatch, Charles E.
The First Seventeen Years Virginia, 1607-1624
. Williamsburg, VA: Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corp., 1957.
OCLC
965922
.
- Neill, Edward D.
History of the Virginia Company of London
. Albany, NY: Joel Munsell, 1869.
OCLC
28459826
.
- Tyler, Lyon Gardiner
.
The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and James River
. Richmond, VA: Whittet and Shepperson, 1900.
OCLC
123194400
.
- Tyler, Lyon Gardiner
.
Encyclopedia of Virginia biography
. Volume 1. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915.
OCLC
2576742
. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
|
---|
|
Geography
| |
---|
Associated places
(
list
)
|
|
---|
Events
(
history
)
| |
---|
Colonists
(
list
)
|
Other notable original colonists
| |
---|
Notable colonists from
supply missions
|
- First Supply
- Second Supply
- Third Supply
- Fourth Supply
- Fifth Supply
|
---|
Notable colonists
1611-1624
| |
---|
|
---|
Natives and
native groups
| |
---|
Other notables
| |
---|
Books and
cultural depictions
| |
---|
Related
| |
---|
|