Bartholomew Gosnold - Early Life

Early Life

Gosnold was born in Grundisburgh in Suffolk, England in 1572, and his family seat was at Otley, Suffolk. His parents were Anthony Gosnold and Dorothy Bacon. He graduated from the University of Cambridge and studied law at Middle Temple. He was a friend of Richard Hakluyt and sailed with Walter Raleigh.

He obtained backing to attempt to found an English colony in the New World and in 1602 he sailed from Falmouth, England in a small Dartmouth bark, the Concord, with thirty-two on board. They intended to establish a colony in New England, which was then known as Virginia. Gosnold pioneered a direct sailing route due west from the Azores to what later became New England, arriving in May 1602 at Cape Elizabeth in Maine (Lat. 43 degrees). Gosnold skirted the coastline for several days before anchoring in York Harbor, Maine, on 14 May 1602.

The next day, he sailed into Provincetown Harbor, where he is credited with naming Cape Cod. Following the coastline for several days, he discovered Martha's Vineyard and named it after his daughter, Martha and established a small post on Cuttyhunk Island, one of the Elizabeth Islands, near Gosnold, now in Massachusetts. The post was abandoned when settlers decided to return on the ship to England since they had insufficient provisions to overwinter.

A notable account of the voyage, written by John Brereton, one of the gentlemen adventurers, was published in 1602, and this helped in popularising subsequent voyages of exploration and colonisation of the northeast seaboard of America. A second account by Gabriel Archer was not published until over twenty years later, after Gosnold's death.