Jeremy Alicock (bef. 1580 - 1607)

Born before 1580 in England

Died 14 Aug 1607 after age 27 in Jamestown Colony

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Betty Norman [send private message]

Biography

Jeremy Alicock was a Jamestown colonist.

Jeremy Alicock, gentleman, left his homeland of England in 1606, and sailed with the Jamestown fleet^[1] to reach the Colony of Virginia. Arriving in May of 1607, they discovered a large river and named it for their king, James River. They found an island well up the James that afforded good harbor and protection from invading Spanish ships. There they built their first fortification in the place they called Jamestown.^[2]

It's unfortunate that the Jamestown founders were more concerned about the Spanish than they were about having a fresh water supply and well-drained land upon which they would build their first settlement. Acclimation to the new surroundings was a real problem. Before summer's end, half of the new colonists were dead,^[1] Alicock among them.

George Percy, in his Discourse of the Colony's first days kept a journal of the summer of 1607, writing in the month of August, that on “the fourteenth day, Jerome Alikock, ancient, died of a wound.”^[3][4] The nature of Alicock's wound is not discussed, so we don't know whether he was one of those injured during an Indian attack, or perhaps the victim of a chance accident.

We do learn, from Percy, more about the abysmal summer. “Our men were destroyed with cruel diseases, as swellings, flixes, burning fevers, and by wars, and some departed suddenly, but for the most part they died of mere famine. There were never Englishmen left in a foreign country in such misery as we were in this new-discovered Virginia."^[5]

Before his death, Alicock had spent some time with Edward Maria Wingfield, President of the Colony. Before his departure from Jamestown, Wingfield spoke well of Alicock, saying, "Here and there I did visit ... Master Allicock ... I never miscalled at [reviled] a gentleman at any time."^[6][7]

Research Notes

Alicock's birth year of "before 1580" is an estimation, but based on Percy's description of Alicock as "ancient," we conclude that Alicock was probably older than Percy, who was born in 1580.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} List of Passengers in the Jamestown Fleet Research and compilation by Anne Stevens, packrat-pro.com.
2. ↑ Smith, Captain John. Names of the First Planters, The Generall Historie of Virginia
3. ↑ Haile, Edward Wright. Jamestown Narratives: Eyewitness Accounts of the Virginia Colony The First Decade: 1607-1617; RoundHouse, Champlain, Virginia, 1998, p. 99.
4. ↑ George Percy: First Months of Jamestown, 1607 (accessed 15 Sep 2021)
5. ↑ Haile, page 99.
6. ↑ Haile, page 199.
7. ↑ McCartney, Martha W. Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary; Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, MD, 2007, p. 81.