General Notes

Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr
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Arrival of De La Warr at Jamestown
Arrival of De La Warr at Jamestown

Thomas West, 3rd (or 12th) Baron De La Warr (July 9, 1577 – June 7, 1618), was the Englishman after whom the state, river and the American Indian tribe now called "Delaware" (in the United States) were named. There have been two creations of Baron De La Warr, and West came from the second. He was the son of Thomas West, 2nd Baron De La Warr, of Wherwell Abbey in Hampshire, and his wife, Anne daughter of Sir Francis Knollys and Catherine Carey. West received his education at Queen's College, Oxford. He served in the army under Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and, in 1601, was charged with supporting Essex's ill-fated insurrection against Queen Elizabeth, but he was acquitted of those charges. He succeeded his father as Baron De La Warr, in 1602, and became a member of the Privy Council.

Lord De La Warr headed the contingent of 150 men, who landed in Jamestown on 10 June 1610, just in time to persuade the original settlers not to give up and go home to England. He had been given instructions by The London Virginia Company to kidnap Native American children. These instructions also sanctioned the murder of the Iniocasoockes, the cultural leaders of the local Powhatans. Lord De La Warr proceeded to initiate the First Anglo-Powhatan War, which has been described as an act of genocide. As a veteran of English campaigns against the Irish, De La Warr employed "Irish tactics" against the Indians: troops raided villages, burned houses, torched cornfields, and stole provisions. He had been appointed governor-for-life (and captain-general) of Virginia, and he outfitted their three ships and recruited and equipped those men at his own expense. Leaving his deputy Sir Samuel Argall (circa 1580 – circa 1626) in charge, Lord De La Warr returned to England and published a book about Virginia, The Relation of the Right Honourable the Lord De-La-Warre, of the Colonie, Planted in Virginia, in 1611. He remained the nominal governor, and he had received complaints from the Virginia settlers about Argall's tyranny in governing them for him, so Lord De La Warr set sail for Virginia again in 1618, to investigate those charges. He died en route, and it was thought for many years that he had been buried in the Azore Islands or at sea.

In 2006, recent research had concluded that his body was brought to Jamestown for burial. A gravesite thought by researchers to contain the remains of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold may instead contain those of Baron De La Warr. [1]
Preceded by
Thomas West     Baron De La Warr
1595–1618     Succeeded by
Henry West
Preceded by
Thomas Gates     Colonial Governor of Virginia
1610-1611     Succeeded by
George Percy