- Sir Samuel Argall (Argal, Argoll, Argyle), who was from East Sutton in Kent, England was consider a capable mariner and in March 1610 conducted Lord Delaware to Virginia. Argall and Sir George Somers left Jamestown (1) in June 1610 and set out for Bermuda to bring food back to the starving Virginia colonists. Afterward, Argall made an exploratory voyage to the New England coast, undertaking the first of numerous fishing voyages. He explored the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries during the autumn and winter 1610 and accompanied Lord Delaware when he left Virginia in June 1611, having been designated captain of a company of men. When word reached England that French missionaries had been sent to North Virginia, Argall was sent out on the Treasurer to oust them. He reached Virginia in September 1612 and helped Sir Thomas Dale subdue the Indians. He also reported that the colony was in good condition at the time of his arrival. In March 1613 Argall was involved in the plot to capture Pocahontas. Argall set sail from Virginia in June 1613 and headed north. He destroyed the French Jesuit colony on Mount Desert Island (in Maine) and returned with prisoners. He also attacked the Dutch colony on the Hudson. Argall was employed in Virginia from December 1613 to June 1614. He returned to England but was sent back to the colony in February 1615.
In early 1617 Samuel Argall, who again was in England, was appointed deputy governor and admiral of Virginia and given a patent for a plantation. Soon after, he set sail for the colony and arrived on 15 May 1617, with 100 settlers. He appears to have considered him self the owner of a portion of West and Shirley Hundred (Eppes) Island (41), land to which Lord Delaware, Lady Elizabeth Dale, and others already had laid claim. Argall, as deputy governor, favored martial law and attempted to continue the policies and strict military code of justice established by Sir Thomas Gates and Sir Thomas Dale. On 7 June 1617, he informed Virginia Company officials that the colony was in poor condition. His solution was to strengthen Jamestown instead of Bermuda Hundred (39) and to expand the colonize territory. He asked for 100 men outfitted with the tools of their trade, and said that he expected hemp and flax to thrive. He also told Company officials that English grains could be grown in soil worn out by cultivation of tobacco, and that cattle thrived in Virginia. He recommended that the Company's magazine ship be sent to the colony every September, at harvest season, and reported that he had authorized people to trade with the Indians. He also confirmed ownership of the colony's leaders' cattle. After Samuel Argall had been in Virginia for a year, he asked to be replaced, claiming that he had greatly improved conditions while in office. He asked for ships' carpenters and 50 men outfitted with tools, plows, and clothing. When the Chickahominy Indians attacked and killed some colonists, he failed to seek revenge, a decision that later yielded criticism. In May 1618 Argall forbade private trade with the Indians, and he ordered the colonists to plant crops and bear arms at all times. No one was allowed to dismantle palisades or teach Indians how to shoot firearms. Argall had a frame church built in Jamestown, and he saw that a boat was built.
When the late Lord Delaware's ship, the Neptune, arrived in Virginia on 14 August 1618, in consort with the Treasurer, Argall commandeered the deceased governor's goods and servants. When Captain Edward Brewster, one of Lord Delaware's men, protested, Argall had Brewster tried at a court martial hearing and sentenced to death; later he suspended the sentence but banished Brewster from Virginia. Argall left for England in early April 1619, shortly before Governor George Yeardley's arrival. However, he had sent out the Treasurer, which captured some Africans under questionably circumstances and brought them to Virginia in late summer 1619. Samuel Argall eventually was subjected to a considerable amount of criticism. He had been given use of some pubic land known as the Common Garden, acreage tended by Company servants, but he reportedly diverted both ground and servants to his own use. He also placed the Society of Martin's Hundred's settlers on the acreage tentatively set aside as the Governor's Land (3), put the late Lord Delaware's servents to work on his own projects, and misappropriated their goods. He was accused of using the Virginia Company's frigate for Indian trade, which he monopolized, and he allegedly sold the Company's cattle, pocking the proceeds. Argall refuse to free the ancient planters, even though their time had expired, and he allowed people to ship tobacco and sassafras at the same rates the Company used, thereby making them competitors. He also received criticism for failing to punish the Chickahominy Indians for killing some colonists. Despite his detractors, Samuel Argall was knighted at Rochester in 1622 and was involved in the attack on Cadiz. Eventually, however, he was made to account for his actions in Virginia and the Company assets under his control. He was sued by the widow of Robert Smalley of Bermuda Hundred and by Lady Cecily West, the widow of Lord Delaware. When Argall died in 1625-26, he was under a persistent cloud of suspicion. Sometime prior to June 1631 his heirs sold his Virginia landholdings to John Woodall, a former investor in the Virginia Company.
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1580 - 1626 (46 years)
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