John White (c1540 - c1593). John White was a settler among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to present-day North Carolina in 1585, acting as artist and mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape and the native Algonkin peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard; the surviving original watercolors are now preserved in the print room of the British Museum. In 1587, White became governor of Sir Walter Raleigh's failed attempt at a permanent settlement on Roanoke Island, known to history as the Lost Colony. This was the earliest effort to establish a permanent English colony in the New World. White's granddaughter Virginia Dare was the first English child born in the Americas. After the failure of the colony, White retired to Raleigh's estates in Ireland, reflecting upon the evils and unfortunate events which had ruined his hopes in America, though never giving up hope that his daughter and granddaughter were still alive. John White's exact date of birth is unknown but it seems likely he was born some time between 1540 and 1550. There is a record dated 22 February 1539, of a christening in the Church of St Augustine, London, of a John White on that same day; but there is no proof this is the same person. White is known to have attended church in the parish of St. Martin Ludgate in London. In 1566 he married Tomasyn Cooper; with whom he had a son, Tom, who died young, and a daughter Eleanor. Little is known of White's training as an artist but it is possible that he apprenticed as an illustrator under a London master. In the late sixteenth century efforts to establish an English colony in the New World began to gain momentum, and White soon became an enthusiastic supporter. In 1585 White accompanied the expedition led by Sir Ralph Lane to attempt to found the first English colony in North America. White was sent by Sir Walter Raleigh as Sir Richard Grenville's artist-illustrator on his first voyage to the New World; he served as mapmaker and artist to the expedition, which encountered considerable difficulties and returned to England in 1586. In 1585 White had been commissioned to draw to life the inhabitants of the New World and their surroundings. During White's time at Roanoke Island, he completed numerous watercolor drawings of the surrounding landscape and native peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard, and predate the first body of discovery voyage art created in the late 18th century by the artists who sailed with Captain James Cook. They represent the sole-surviving visual record of the native inhabitants of America encountered by England's first settlers. White's enthusiasm for watercolor was unusual-most contemporary painters preferred to use oil-based paints. White's watercolors would soon become a sensation in Europe; it was not long before the watercolors were engraved by the Flemish master engraver Theodore de Bry. Through the medium of print, the illustrations became widely known and distributed; they were published in 1590 under the title America. After Lane's colonists returned to England in 1586, Sir Walter Raleigh, who held the land patent for the proposed English colony of Virginia, tasked White with the job of organising a new settlement in the Chesapeake Bay area, one which would be self-sustaining and which would include women and children. During 1586 White was able to persuade 113 prospective colonists to join Raleigh's expedition, including his daughter Eleanor and his son-in-law Ananias Dare, recently married at St Bride's Church in Fleet Street. His efforts did not go unrewarded; on 7 January 1587, Raleigh named John White of London Gentleman, to be the chief Governor of the new colony. White, with thirteen others, were incorporated under the name of The Governor and Assistants of the Cities of Raleigh of Virginia. In May 1587 White's colonists sailed for Virginia in the Lion. They were guided by the Portuguese navigator Simon Fernandez, the same pilot who had led the 1585 expedition and who was given by his fellow sailors the unhappy nickname of the swine. The settlers' chosen destination was not Roanoke but the Chesapeake Bay. But, upon reaching Roanoke in late July, and allowing the colonists to disembark, Fernandez refused to let White's men re-board ship. According to White's journal, Fernandez's deputy called to the sailors in the pinesse, charging them not to bring any of the planters back againe, but leave them on the island.