Captain john smith biography
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John Smith (explorer)
English soldier, explorer and writer (–)
"Captain John Smith" redirects here. For other people named John Smith, see John Smith.
John Smith (baptized 6 January – 21 June ) was an English soldier, explorer, colonial governor, admiral of New England, and author. Following his return to England from a life as a soldier of fortune and as a slave,[1] he played an important role in the establishment of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America, in the early 17th century. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony between September and August , and he led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay, during which he became the first English explorer to map the Chesapeake Bay area. Later, he explored and mapped the coast of New England. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, and his friend Mózes Székely.
Jamestown was established on May 14, • Virginians know that Captain John Smith was vital to the survival of Jamestown in its early years. They can quote his order: “He that will not worke, shall not eate.” But few know that Smith&#;s adventures started years before Jamestown. Born in in Willoughby, England, Smith left home at age 16 after his father died. He joined volunteers in France who were fighting for Dutch independence from Spain. Two years later, he set off for the Mediterranean Sea as a sailor on a merchant ship. In he joined Austrian forces to fight the Turks in the &#;Long War.&#; A valiant soldier, he was promoted to captain while fighting in Hungary. He was fighting in Transylvania in when he was wounded in battle, captured, and sold as a slave to a Turk. This Turk then sent Smith as a gift to his sweetheart in Istanbul, but Smith wrote that this girl fell in love with him and sent him to her brother for training to join Turkish imperial service. Smith said he escaped by murdering the brother and fleeing • Smith was born in Lincolnshire, England, the son of George Smith, a farmer, and Alice Rickard Smith. The eldest of five boys and a girl, he was baptized at Saint Helen&#;s Church in Willoughby, Lincolnshire, on January 9, John Smith may have been a student of the Puritan reformer Francis Marbury (father of Anne Hutchinson) before attending the King Edward VI Grammar School in Louth. In Smith was apprenticed to the wealthy merchant Thomas Sendall in King&#;s Lynn. This seems to have been an amicable arrangement, but after Smith&#;s father died in April and his mother remarried, Smith terminated his apprenticeship and left England. Looking to travel, he served as a soldier in the Low Countries beneath Captain namn Duxbury until about ; he then joined a company of English volunteers as an attendant to Peregrine Bertie, thirteenth baron Willoughby of Eresby, and traveled to France as part of forces allied with Henri IV, the Huguenot (Protestant) claimant to the throne. Af
Early Years