Croshaw familyCaptain Raleigh Croshaw was an Ancient planter and a representative in the House of Burgesses for Elizabeth City County in the US Colony and Dominion of Virginia. He was the only son of Joseph Croshaw of Ireland. Crowshaw arrived in Jamestown, Virginia on the sailing ship "Mary & Margrett", with the Second Supply in September 1608. His wife came over on the "Bona Nova" in 1620 but, as she is not mentioned in 1623 Census, she was likely dead by 1623. He was a member of the Virginia Company of London in 1609 and is still listed as an adventurer in the Company in both 1618 and 1620. He was one of the authors of the complimentary verses prefixed to "The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles" (1624) of John Smith of Jamestown. At the time of the massacre in March of 1622, he was on a trading cruise on the Potomac. According to Captain John Smith's General History, Croshaw challenged the chief Opchanacanough or any of his warriors to fight him naked, an offer that was not accepted. When Captain John Smith published his General History in 1624, one of the verses in Volume III of the book had been written by Croshaw -- and in his writing, John Smith implies a high opinion of Croshaw's knowledge of Indians and their way of making war..... more |
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