William Strachey

William Strachey (4 April 1572 21 June 1621

(buried)) was an English writer whose works are among
the primary sources for the early history of the English
colonisation of North America. He is best remembered
today as the eye-witness reporter of the 1609 shipwreck
on the uninhabited island of Bermuda of the colonial ship
Sea Venture, which was caught in a hurricane while sailing to Virginia. The survivors eventually reached Virginia
after building two small ships during the ten months they
spent on the island. His account of the incident and of the
Virginia colony is thought by most Shakespearean scholars to have been a source for Shakespeares play The Tempest.

Family

Stracheys sonnet, Upon Sejanus, published in Ben Jonson's

Sejanus His Fall (1605)

William Strachey, born 4 April 1572 in Saron Walden,

Essex, was the grandson of William Strachey (died
1587),[1] and the eldest son of William Strachey (died
1598) and Mary Cooke (died 1587),[2] the daughter of
Henry Cooke, Merchant Taylor of London, by Anne
Goodere, the daughter of Henry Goodere[3] and Jane
Greene.[4] Stracheys maternal grandfather, Henry Cooke
(died 1551), held Lesnes Abbey in Kent; he was succeeded by his son, Edmund Cooke (died 1619), while his
younger son, Richard Cooke, has been identied as the
author of Description de Tous les Provinces de France.[5][6]

larly attended plays. He was a shareholder in the Children

of the Revels, a troupe of boy actors who performed 'in a
converted room in the former Blackfriars monastery',[7]
as evidenced by his deposition in a lawsuit in 1606. According to Sisson:
In 1600 Richard Burbage leased to [Henry]
Evans his Blackfriars property, and the Children of the Revels under Nathaniel Giles, with
Evans as landlord and partner, occupied the
theatre for some years. Evans assigned his
rights in the property and the company in
two stages, rst one-half in sixths to [Edward]
Kirkham, [Thomas] Kendall and [William]
Rastell, and subsequently the second half in
sixths to John Marston, William Strachey, and
his own wife. There were later complications.
But in 1606 William Strachey had a one-sixth
share in the Blackfriars Theatre. Strachey,
there is no manner of doubt on the evidence
and from the signature of his deposition, was
the well-known voyager and writer whose account of the Bermuda voyage left its marks
on Shakespeares Tempest. He gave evidence
in the suit as William Strachey, of Crowhurst,
Surrey, gentleman, aged 34 on 4 July 1606.[12]

By his fathers rst marriage Strachey had three brothers and three sisters.[6] Stracheys mother died in 1587,
and in August of that year Stracheys father married Elizabeth Brocket of Hertfordshire, by whom he had ve
daughters.[6][7]
Strachey was brought up on an estate purchased by his
grandfather in the 1560s.[6] In 1588, at the age of sixteen,
he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge,[8] but did not
take a degree.[9] In 1605 he was at Grays Inn, but there
is no evidence that he made the law his profession.[2][9]
In 1602 he inherited his fathers estate following a legal
dispute with Elizabeth Brocket, his stepmother.[2]

Career

Strachey wrote a sonnet, Upon Sejanus,[10] which was Strachey became friends with the citys poets and playpublished in the 1605 edition of the 1603 play Sejanus wrights, including Thomas Campion,[7] John Donne,[7]
His Fall by Ben Jonson.[7][11]
Ben Jonson,[7] Hugh Holland, John Marston, George
Strachey also kept a residence in London, where he regu- Chapman, and Matthew Roydon, many of them members
1

STRACHEYS WORKS

of the Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen who met at cluded his eyewitness account of life in early Virginia,
the Mermaid Tavern.[13]
but borrowed heavily from the earlier work of Richard
By 1605 Strachey was in precarious nancial Willes, James Rosier, John Smith, and others. Strachey
circumstances[2] from which he spent the rest of produced two more versions during the next six years,
his life trying to recover. In 1606 he used his wifes dedicating one to Francis Bacon and the other to Sir Allen
familys inuence to obtain the position of secretary to Apsley. It too was critical of the Virginia Company manthe English Levant Company and to Thomas Glover, agement of the colony, and Strachey failed to nd a pathe English ambassador to Turkey.[7] He travelled to tron to publish his work, which was nally rst published
in 1849 by the Hakluyt Society.
Constantinople, but quarrelled with the ambassador and
[2]
was dismissed in March 1607 and returned to England Strachey died of unknown causes in June 1621. The
in June 1608.[14] He then decided to mend his fortunes in parish register of St. Giles, Camberwell, in Southwark
the New World, and in 1609 purchased two shares in the records his burial on 21 June 1621. He died in poverty,
Virginia Company[2] and sailed to Virginia on the Sea leaving this verse:
Venture with Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers
in the summer of that year.
Hark! Twas the trump of death that blew
My hour has come. False world adieu

2.1

Shipwreck of the Sea Venture

Thy pleasures have betrayed me so

That I to death untimely go.

Strachey was a passenger aboard the agship Sea Venture with the leaders of the expedition when the ship
[19]
was discovered in the
was blown o course by a hurricane. Leaking, and with In 1996, Stracheys signet ring
ruins
of
Jamestown,
identied
by
the
family seal, an eagle.
its foundering imminent, the ship was run aground o
the coast of Bermuda, accidentally beginning Englands
colonisation of that Atlantic archipelago. The group was
stranded on the island for almost a year, during which 3 Marriages and issue
they constructed two small boats in which they eventually
completed the voyage to Virginia.
On 9 June 1595 Strachey married Frances Forster,[2]
Strachey wrote an eloquent letter dated 15 July 1610, 'the daughter of a prosperous Surrey family with politito an unnamed Excellent Lady in England about the cal connections.[9] Frances Forster was the daughter of
Sea Venture disaster, including an account of the precar- William Forster and Elizabeth Draper (died 22 April
ious state of the Jamestown colony. Being critical of the 1605), widow of John Bowyer (died 10 October 1570) of
management of the colony, it was suppressed by the Vir- Shepton Beauchamp, Somerset, and daughter of Robert
ginia Company. After the dissolution of the company it Draper of Camberwell, Surrey, Page of the Jewels to
was published in 1625 by Samuel Purchas as A true re- King Henry VIII, by Elizabeth Fyeld.[20][21] Strachey
portory of the wracke, and redemption of Sir THOMAS lived in London while Frances remained at her fathers
GATES Knight. It is generally thought to be one of the estate in Crowhurst, Surrey.[9] They had two children,
sources for Shakespeare's The Tempest because of certain William Strachey (died 1635), born nine months after
verbal, plot and thematic similarities.[15]
the marriage in 1596, and Edmund Strachey, born in
[2]
Stracheys writings are among the few rst-hand descrip- 1604. Frances died before 1615, and at some time betions of Virginia in the period. His glossary of words of fore that date Strachey married a widow whose rst name
by whom he does not appear to have had
the Powhatan[16] is one of only two records of the lan- was Dorothy,
[2]
any
issue.
[17]
guage (the other being Captain John Smiths).

2.2

Later life and death

Strachey remained at Jamestown for less than a year, but

during that time he became the Secretary of the Colony
after the drowning death of Matthew Scrivener in 1609.
He returned to England probably in late 1611 and published a compilation of the colonial laws put in place by
the governors.[18]
He then produced an extended manuscript about the Virginia colony, The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia, dedicating the rst version to Henry Percy, 9th
Earl of Northumberland, in 1612. The manuscript in-

Stracheys son, William, married three times, and died in

1635.[22]

4 Stracheys works
A true reportory of the wracke, and redemption
of Sir THOMAS GATES Knight [23] and at Virtual
Jamestown.[24]
For The Colony in Virginea Britannia. Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, &c. original-spelling
version[25] and modern-spelling version at Virtual
Jamestown.[26]

3
The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia at
Google Books.[27]
A Dictionary of Powhatan at Google Books.[28]

Notes

[26] Personal Narratives from the Virtual Jamestown Project,

1575-1705. Etext.lib.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2013-1225.
[27] The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britinia - William
Strachey - Google Boeken. Books.google.com. Retrieved
2013-12-25.

[1] Woodward 2009, pp. 12.

[2] Wood 2004.
[3] Henry Goodere was the brother of Thomas Goodere of
Hadley; Fetherston 1877, p. 67; Cass 1875, p. 263.
[4] Fetherston 1877, p. 67;Woodward 2009, p. 2; Hawley
1879, p. 604.
[5] Hasted 1797, pp. 2534; Potter 2004, pp. 1011.
[6] Zacek, Natalie, William Strachey (15721621), Encyclopedia of Virginia Retrieved 27 March 2013.
[7] Woodward 2009, p. 3.
[8] Strachey, William (STRY587W)". A Cambridge Alumni
Database. University of Cambridge.
[9] Woodward 2009, p. 2.
[10] Upon Sejanus, Encyclopedia Virginia Retrieved 28 March
2013.
[11] Jonson 1616
[12] Sisson cites the lawsuit as P.R.O. C 24/327/22; Sisson
1956, pp. 1889; Munro 2005, p. 202.
[13] Culliford 1965, p. 50.
[14] Woodward 2009, p. 4.
[15] Vaughan, Virginia Mason; Vaughan, Alden T. (1999).
The Tempest. The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series. The
Arden Shakespeare, p. 287. ISBN 978-1-903436-08-0.
[16] Campbell 1860, p. 106.
[17] Mithun, Marianne (2001). The Languages of Native North
America. Cambridge University Press. p. 332. ISBN
052129875X.
[18] "Strachey, William". Dictionary of National Biography.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. 18851900.
[19] Strachey Ring-Historic Jamestowne.
jamestowne.org. Retrieved 2013-12-25.

[25] Personal Narratives from the Virtual Jamestown Project,

1575-1705. Etext.lib.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2013-1225.

Historic-

[28] A Dictionary of Powhatan - Google

Books.google.com. Retrieved 2013-12-25.

Boeken.

6 References
Betham, William (1805). The Baronetage of England V. London: Warde and Betham. p. 431. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
Blanch, William Harnet (1872). The Parish of Camberwell. London: E.W. Allen. p. 41. Retrieved 28
March 2013.
Campbell, Charles (1860). History of the Colony
and Ancient Dominion of Virginia. Philadelphia:
J.B. Lippincott and Co. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
Cass, Frederick Charles (1875). Notes on the
Church and Parish of Monken Hadley. Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological
Society (London: J.B. Nichols and Sons) IV: 253
86. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
Culliford, S.G. (1965). William Strachey, 15721621. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Retrieved 28 March 2013.
Fetherston, John, ed. (1877). The Visitation of the
County of Warwick in the Year 1619 XII. London:
Harleian Society. p. 67. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
Hasted, Edward (1797). The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent II (2nd ed.).
Canterbury: W. Bristow. pp. 2534. Retrieved 28
March 2013.
Hawley, Thomas et al. (1879). The Visitations of
Essex, Part II XIV. London: Harleian Society. p.
604. Retrieved 27 March 2013.

[20] Lysons 1811, pp. 5960; Nichols 1825, p. 586; Nichols

1865, pp. 2203; Blanch 1872, p. 41.

Jonson, Ben (1616). The Workes of Ben Jonson.

London: William Stansby.

[21] 'Parishes: Camberwell', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4 (1912), pp. 24-36 Date accessed: 29
March 2013.

Lysons, Daniel (1811). The Environs of London I

(2nd ed.). London: T. Cadell and W. Davies. pp.
5960. Retrieved 29 March 2013.

[22] Betham 1805, p. 431.

Munro, Lucy (2005). Children of the Queens Revels;

A Jacobean Theatre Repertory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 202. Retrieved 28
March 2013.

[23] original-spelling. Retrieved 2013-12-25.

[24] modern-spelling. Retrieved 2013-12-25.

7
Nichols, John, ed. (1825). The Gentlemans Magazine XCV (2nd ed.). London: John Nichols and
Son. pp. 5837. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
Nichols, John Gough (1865). Surrey Archaeological
Collections III. London: Lovell Reeve & Co. pp.
2236. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
Potter, David, ed. (2004). Foreign Intelligence and
Information in Elizabethan England; Two English
Treatises on the State of France, 1580-1584. Cambridge: Royal Historical Society. p. 11. Retrieved
27 March 2013.
Sisson, Charles Jasper (1956). New Readings in
Shakespeare I. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. pp. 1889. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
Wood, Betty (2004). Strachey, William (1572
1621)".
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.).
Oxford University Press.
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26623. (Subscription or UK
public library membership required.) The rst edition of this text is available as an article on Wikisource:
"Strachey, William". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
18851900.
Woodward, Hobson (2009).
A Brave Vessel;
The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued
Jamestown. New York: Penguin Books. Retrieved
28 March 2013.

External links
Works by or about William Strachey at Internet
Archive
Zacek, Natalie, William Strachey (15721621), Encyclopedia Virginia Retrieved 27 March 2013
Will of William Strachey of Walden, National
Archives Retrieved 27 March 2013
Will of Henry Cooke, Merchant Taylor of London,
National Archives Retrieved 27 March 2013
Will of Robert Draper, gentleman, of Camberwell,
Surrey, National Archives Retrieved 29 March 2013
Will of Matthew Draper, gentleman, of Camberwell, Surrey, National Archives Retrieved 29 March
2013
Will of William Strachey, gentleman, of Saint Giles
in the Fields, National Archives Retrieved 29 March
2013
'Elizabeth Draper (d. April 27, 1605)', A Whos
Who of Tudor Women: D Retrieved 29 March 2013

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

William Strachey Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Strachey?oldid=670210233 Contributors: Deb, Paul Barlow, Charles

Matthews, Dimadick, Babbage, Mboverload, Leonardo Alves, Dirac1933, FeanorStar7, Ylem, Rjwilmsi, Jaraalbe, RussBot, Bachrach44,
AndyJones, Cobun, SmackBot, ERcheck, Chris the speller, Bluebot, Colonies Chris, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Fotoguzzi, GameKeeper, Ohconfucius, Brainbark, Aodhdubh, Mojo Hand, Dsp13, Waacstats, Lady Mondegreen, R'n'B, Sarregouset, VolkovBot, Omegastar, Jdubowsky, SweetCarmen, Goustien, Tom Reedy, ClueBot, Mhockey, Boleyn, Addbot, Ironholds, Lucian Sunday, Tassedethe, Lightbot, Don Ostrowski, AnomieBOT, GrouchoBot, Green Cardamom, Trappist the monk, Lotje, RjwilmsiBot, Finn Bjrklid, PBS-AWB,
NinaGreen, Helpful Pixie Bot, VIAFbot, KasparBot and Anonymous: 18

8.2

Images

File:Strachey_Sejanus0001.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Strachey_Sejanus0001.jpg License:

Public domain Contributors: Sejanus by Ben Jonson Original artist: William Strachey
File:Wikisource-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Contributors: Rei-artur Original artist: Nicholas Moreau

8.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0