AROUND THE TOWN AND OVER THE POND - 05: 'AN AMERICAN HERO?'
Continued from https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2024/06/around-town-and-over-pond-04-diversion.html
AROUND THE TOWN AND OVER THE POND
A walk around Budleigh Salterton to interest transatlantic visitors. Every so often there’s a diversion which may inspire you to visit places like East Budleigh, Exeter, Sidmouth, Colyton or even places in the United States and Canada.
The walk is set out in parts. Here’s the fifth part:
Still at the Raleigh Wall.
0.5 'AN AMERICAN HERO?'
Raleigh did not visit North America but in some parts of the US he is possibly better known than in the country of his birth.
Some Americans from areas like New England, Virginia and North Carolina have evidently seen him as a kind of forefather or pioneer to whom they owe their place in the New World. He was presented among the ‘Heroes of American History’ in the book published in 1909 by author Frederick A. Ober.
Photo of James Russell Lowell c.1855 Image credit: Wikipedia and www.raleigh400.blogspot.com
The Massachusetts-born poet and diplomat James Russell
Lowell, US Ambassador in London at the time of its unveiling in 1882,
contributed these lines which appear on the Raleigh Window in St Margaret’s
Church, Westminster:
The New World’s sons, from England’s breast we drew
Such milk as bids remember whence we came;
Proud of her Past, where from our Future grew,
This window we inscribe with Raleigh’s name.
The title of the window is 'The Landing of Raleigh in America'!
Image credit: Wikipedia
Off the coast of North Carolina is Roanoke Island, where events in the 1580s contributed to an association with Sir Walter closer than with any other US state.
The plaque in Plymouth, Devon, commemorating the city’s links with the Roanoke Colony. © Christine Matthews www.geograph.org.uk
It was on Roanoke Island in 1585 that Raleigh arranged for an expedition with the aim of founding the first permanent English settlement in America. War with Spain and the threat of the Spanish Armada interrupted the project. When a ship finally visited the colony, the crew found that the colonists had disappeared under unknown circumstances.
John White, ‘A cheife Herowans wyfe of Pomeoc and her daughter of the age of 8 or 10 years.’ (1585) Collection of the British Museum, London
The failed expedition has come to be known as the Lost Colony, and the fate of the 112 to 121 colonists remains unknown to this day. Were they massacred by an unfriendly tribe? Did they starve to death? Did they intermarry with a local tribe?
Part of the fascination with such questions comes from the vivid portrayal of Native American culture in watercolours by John White, the artist and mapmaker who accompanied the expedition.
John White’s watercolour of an Indian chief with the caption 'The manner of their attire and painting them selves when they goe to their generall huntings, or at theire solemne feasts'. Collection of the British Museum, London.
The story of the Lost Colony lived on. Its likely location on Roanoke Island was named Fort Raleigh, and the town of Manteo was named after the Native American, a member of the small ethnic group known as Croatan, who befriended the colonists.
A plaque to commemorate the first Indigenous person, Manteo, who was converted to Christianity at the Roanoke Colony. The drawing utilized on the plaque was drawn by John White. Image credit: Sarah Stierch; Wikimedia
Manteo became famous not only for visiting London twice, but
also for being baptised as a member of the Church of England and being
designated Lord of Roanoke and Dasemunkepeuc by
Raleigh.
A poster for the 2013 production of The Lost Colony. Image credit: www.obxentertainment.com
Raleigh and Manteo are just two of the characters in the historical outdoor drama ‘The Lost Colony’, produced each evening during the summer since 1937 in Manteo and seen by more than four million people.
This photo, showing Queen Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh and two American Indians in a scene from ‘The Lost Colony’, was presented to Lord Clinton by the Roanoke Island Historical Association to mark the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the first of Sir Walter's ships to Roanoke Island on 27 April 1584.
Image credit:
www.downtownraleigh.org
Raleigh himself is commemorated in the name of the state
capital of North Carolina. The 11 foot high statue of Sir Walter was cast in
bronze by the sculptor Bruno Lucchsei at his studio in Italy and then
transported to the US and dedicated in 1976.
The seal of the City of Raleigh. Image credit: Wikipedia
Since 1983, the Raleigh City Council has presented more than 200 Sir Walter Raleigh Awards for Community Appearance to developers, designers, building owners, community groups, civic clubs, churches, and citizens who have made outstanding new contributions to the character, environment, and appearance of the city.
Anna Beer’s book Patriot or Traitor was published in 2018
There were political reasons for Raleigh to be loved by those early Americans who sought independence and rejected the authority of the British Crown. As historian Anna Beer wrote, following his death in 1618 ‘the next generation turned Sir Walter into a champion of parliamentary power, even a republican’.
Raleigh’s cell in the Tower of London. Image credit: www.sickchickchic.com
Soldier, courtier, explorer, ship designer, botanist, physician… Raleigh was also a poet and author. Most of his writings were not published in his lifetime but his massive History of the World, consisting of over a million words, was written while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London.
The History of the World was published in 1614
Anti-monarchists were quick to quote from the ‘History’, using
Raleigh’s criticism of rulers who relied on evil advisers to support their
cause.
Portrait
of King James I of England and VI of Scotland (1566–1625), attributed to the
Flemish artist John de Critz (1551/2-1642)
According to the contemporary diarist and letter writer John Chamberlain, King James condemned the History as ‘too saucy in censuring the acts of princes’ and tried to have all copies destroyed, but in vain. A second edition appeared in 1617 and was followed by many more.
Portraits of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper and his son Richard by Gerard Soest. Image credit: Wikipedia
It’s no surprise to find Oliver Cromwell – nemesis of King Charles I – recommending The History of the World to his son Richard.
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The Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg. Image credit: Wikipedia
But it was in 18th century America that
Raleigh was most fully embraced by those republicans who fought successfully
for independence from the British Crown. The Raleigh Taven in Williamsburg,
Virginia, may have been named after Raleigh the pioneer of colonization, but it
became a centre of sedition in the 1770s.
Portraits of politician Patrick Henry, left, by George Bagby Matthews after Thomas Sully and US President Thomas
Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale and Image credit: Wikipedia
The building, thought to have been decorated with a metal bust of Raleigh in the 18th century, was frequented by lovers of liberty like Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry who saw Sir Walter as their champion against the tyranny of the British Crown.
The portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh (1787) owned by Thomas Jefferson. Image credit: www.monticello.org
Jefferson is known to have owned Raleigh's ‘Judicious and Selected Essayes and Observations’ (1650) and a 1736 edition of the History of the World. He also owned this portrait of Sir Walter.
The seal of New Hampshire bears an image of the USS Raleigh Image credit: Wikipedia
During the War of Independence American patriots named a ship after him. You can imagine that the Royal Navy was not at all happy about this. You can still see the USS Raleigh on the seal of the State of New Hampshire.
‘The execution of Louis XVI’ by Georg Heinrich Sieveking
It’s no accident that the city of Raleigh in North Carolina was so named in 1792, at the height of the French Revolution.
Events in France, notably when the monarchy was ended with the execution of Louis XVI on 21 January the following year, were keenly watched by Americans although many had reservations about the increasing instability and violence of the Revolution.
The Hayes Barton Café and Dessertery, named after Sir Walter's birthplace outside East Budleigh, in Raleigh, North Carolina
In the 20th century there was further evidence of American affection for Sir Walter when two districts of the city of Raleigh were named Hayes Barton and Budleigh. This was at a time in the post WW1-era when Anglo-American relations were at their strongest following the US’s entry into the war on the side of the Allies.
On 22 June 1984 the Exmouth Herald newspaper published a photo of five members of the Page family, from Raleigh, North Carolina. They were part of a group of 85 Americans who had travelled to East Devon for a visit arranged by something called the Friendship Force.
Apparently it was the extraordinary story of Sir Walter Raleigh which was the main attraction for them. ‘Raleigh’s connection with our hometown is highly important to us,’ they were quoted as saying. ‘You see, back home everybody has heard of Hayes Barton. In Raleigh we have a Hayes Barton Baptist Church, a Hayes Barton Laundromat, a Hayes Barton Swimming Pool and a Hayes Barton Drugstore.’
Gail and Francis Kelly with, centre, Priscilla Hull, co-founder of Fairlynch Museum
Such is the attraction of what has been called 'The Raleigh
Country' for Americans that some US citizens have settled here or made regular
visits. One example is the artist Francis Kelly who is noted for his sketches
of the East Devon countryside.
Here’s his etching of Hayes Barton.
The family retained its links with our area when Francis and Gail Kelly's son Sean settled in nearby Otterton.
Image credit: Budleigh Salterton Library
Sean Kelly is the author of Home Bases: Memories and Stories of US Military Bases Around London, published in 2014. He is pictured, left, with local resident Nick Loman who shares with Sean an interest in the history of World War Two. Both were involved in setting up an exhibition in Budleigh Library to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
In the Autumn of 2022 a group of US visitors included the Budleigh area in their tour of places associated with Sir Walter and his faithful friend the mathematician Thomas Harriott, staying in Oxford, Ireland, Sherborne and London.
Image credit: Peter Bowler
Here they are with me at the Raleigh Wall in Budleigh
Salterton.
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