Early Years
Wingfield was born in 1550 at Stoneley Priory, near Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire, England, the son of Thomas Maria Wingfield and his wife Margaret Kay. Thomas Wingfield, a member of Parliament who belonged to a well-established political and military family, died in 1557, and in 1562 Margaret Wingfield married James Creuse (also spelled Cruwys and Crewes), who became the adolescent Edward's guardian. Wingfield was raised as a Protestant; the "Maria" in Edward's and Thomas's names honored their godmother, King Henry VIII's sister Mary Tudor.
Wingfield appears to have remained in Ireland until 1576, when he went to London and was admitted to the legal training program at Lincoln's Inn. He left the Inn, however, before completing his studies there, and, in company with his brother Thomas Wingfield, served as a captain of foot in the Low Countries, fighting in support of the Protestant Dutch Republic against Spanish Catholic forces. In 1588 he, along with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a future settler of New England, was taken prisoner by the Spanish at Bergen-op-Zoom, and was held first at Ghent and then at Lille until he and Gorges gained their release through a prisoner-of-war exchange in June 1589.
The Virginia Company of London
Gaining and Losing Power
On September 10, the surviving settlers deposed Wingfield from the presidency of the Council, charging him with a number of offenses, including hoarding food, having secret sympathies with Spain's imperial ambitions in North America, and being an atheist. The former president was imprisoned in the Discovery, where he remained until January 1608, when Newport returned to Jamestown from a voyage to England. Newport ordered that Wingfield then be moved inside the fort, in company with Smith, who had been sentenced to hang after losing two settlers to the Indians. Newport released both men, but he did not move to reinstate Wingfield as president, as the charge of atheism was sufficiently serious that it was necessary that Wingfield return to England to face trial. On April 10, 1608, Wingfield returned to England with Newport, and never returned to the Virginia colony.
Later Years
For many years, Wingfield was viewed quite unfavorably in terms of his conduct as Jamestown, not only because of his removal from the presidency, but also because John Smith described him in such negative terms in his extensive and widely circulated commentaries on the early years of the Virginia colony. In retrospect, Wingfield was probably too old to provide effective leadership to a group of boys and men who were mostly in their teens and twenties, and while his severity as a disciplinarian may have been effective among soldiers, it aroused significant hostility among the settlers.
Many of the problems that Jamestown endured in its first months, however, such as Indian hostility, exceptionally hot and dry weather, and a scarcity of food, were neither Wingfield's fault nor within his control. Moreover, his choice of an easily defensible site for the first settlement and his knowledge of effective processes of fort-building contributed to the colony's ability to survive its difficult early years. Wingfield's Discourse of Virginia, although insistent in its justifications of his actions, provides a crucial eyewitness account of the first year of the Jamestown settlement, supplementing John Smith's better-known narrative.
Time Line
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1550 - Edward Maria Wingfield is born at Stoneley Priory, near Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire, England, to Thomas Maria Wingfield and his wife Margaret Kay.
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1557 - Thomas Maria Wingfield, father of Edward Maria Wingfield, dies.
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March 1562 - Wardship of Edward Maria Wingfield is granted to James Cruse (or Cruwys, or Crewes), second husband of Margaret Wingfield.
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1569 - Edward Maria Wingfield accompanies his uncle Jaques Wingfield to Ireland.
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1576 - Edward Maria Wingfield returns to England from Ireland and briefly studies law at Lincoln's Inn, London. He leaves before completing his studies.
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September 22, 1586 - Edward Maria Wingfield fights in the Low Countries against the Spanish at the Battle of Zutphen.
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1588 - Edward Maria Wingfield is taken as a Spanish prisoner of war at Bergen-op-Zoom, and transported first to Ghent and then to Lille.
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June 1589 - Edward Maria Wingfield is released by the Spanish as part of a prisoner-of-war exchange.
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1590s - Edward Maria Wingfield serves in the English garrisons at Drogheda and Dundalk, Ireland.
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1593 - Edward Maria Wingfield is elected a member of Parliament for Chippenham, Wiltshire.
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1600 - Edward Maria Wingfield becomes a governor of Kimbolton School, near Stoneley Priory.
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1605–1606 - Edward Maria Wingfield and his cousin Bartholomew Gosnold recruit approximately forty boys and men as participants in the planned expedition to Virginia.
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April 10, 1606 - King James I grants the Virginia Company a royal charter dividing the North American coast between two companies, the Virginia Company of London and the Virginia Company of Plymouth, overseen by the "Counsell of Virginia," whose thirteen members are appointed by the king.
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December 20, 1606 - Three ships carrying 104 settlers sail from London bound for Virginia. Christopher Newport captains the Susan Constant, Bartholomew Gosnold the Godspeed, and John Ratcliffe the Discovery.
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April 26, 1607 - Jamestown colonists first drop anchor in the Chesapeake Bay, and after a brief skirmish with local Indians, begin to explore the James River.
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May 13, 1607 - The Jamestown colonists select a marshy peninsula fifty miles up the James River on which to establish their settlement.
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May 26, 1607 - While Christopher Newport and a party of colonists explore the James River, an alliance of five Algonquian-speaking Indian groups—the Quiyoughcohannocks, the Weyanocks, the Appamattucks, the Paspaheghs, and the Chiskiacks—attacks Jamestown, wounding ten and killing two.
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September 10, 1607 - Council members John Ratcliffe, John Smith, and John Martin oust Edward Maria Wingfield as president, replacing him with Ratcliffe. By the end of the month, half of Jamestown's 104 men and boys are dead, mostly from sickness.
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April 10, 1608 - Aboard the John and Francis, Christopher Newport leaves Jamestown for England. Among those with him are Gabriel Archer, Edward Maria Wingfield, and the Indian Namontack.
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April 13, 1631 - Edward Maria Wingfield is buried at Saint Andrew's parish church in Cambridgeshire, England.
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1859 - Edward Maria Wingfield's narrative of his experiences in Virginia is published as A Discourse of Virginia.
References
Further Reading
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Zacek, N. Edward Maria Wingfield (1550–1631). (2013, November 2). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Wingfield_Edward_Maria_1550-1631.
- MLA Citation:
Zacek, Natalie. "Edward Maria Wingfield (1550–1631)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2 Nov. 2013. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: September 20, 2012 | Last modified: November 2, 2013
Contributed by Natalie Zacek, a lecturer in history and American studies at the University of Manchester.