Raleigh Croshaw "Ancient Planter"

Raleigh Croshaw, also recorded as Crashaw, Crowshaw, and Chroshaw, was an early Virginia Company adventurer and Jamestown-era colonist. The supplied material places his arrival in Virginia in October 1608 and describes later service in trade, defense, landholding, and the House of Burgesses. He was living on 22 November 1624, and an inventory of his estate was ordered on 27 December 1624.

Raleigh Croshaw was born about 1570, with Lancashire, England given as his birthplace. Some genealogies identify his parents as Joseph Croshaw and Katherine Graves, but this parentage is not established in the supplied material. He is said to have married in England, although his wife’s name is not known with certainty. The notes identify a daughter, Katherine Elizabeth Croshaw, born in 1586 at Gravesend, Kent, England. They further state that she married Thomas Graves and later came to Virginia with two sons.

Croshaw was an adventurer, or stockholder, in the Virginia Company of London. The supplied account says that, after the severe losses at Jamestown in its first year, he decided to go to Virginia with supplies. He reportedly arrived at Jamestown in October 1608 aboard the Mary and Margaret, described in the notes as a second supply ship. Thomas Graves is also said to have been aboard. Croshaw continued to be listed as an adventurer in 1618 and 1620.

In January 1609, Croshaw was among the party accompanying Captain John Smith while trading for corn at Opechancanough’s village. According to the supplied account of Smith’s history, the party narrowly avoided a surprise attack, and Croshaw made a nighttime journey back to Jamestown that helped warn the settlement. Later accounts call him Captain, though the ship manifest reportedly styled him a gentleman.

Croshaw was associated with the Elizabeth City area and served as a burgess for Elizabeth City by 1624. About 1623, he received a patent for 500 acres near Old Point Comfort. The patent described him as “an Ancient Planter who hath remained in this country 15 years complete and performed many a worthy service to the Colony.” In this usage, planter meant settler. The grant was said to rest on his transportation of himself, his servant, and his wife, as well as an investment of 25 pounds sterling in the Virginia Company.

During the March 1622 attack on the colony, Croshaw was reportedly trading on the Potomac River in a small bark commanded by Captain Spilman. The supplied narrative says that an Indian came aboard and warned the vessel of the attack. It also states that Croshaw accompanied Claiborne on explorations and helped defend a remote Potomac trading post with only a few men. John Smith’s General History reportedly records that Croshaw challenged Opechancanough or his warriors to fight without armor. Croshaw also wrote one of the complimentary verses prefixed to Smith’s The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, published in 1624.

In March 1624, Croshaw received a commission to trade with Native people for corn. On that voyage, he reportedly purchased a large canoe for 10,000 blue beads. The Corporation of Elizabeth City is quoted in the supplied notes as stating that Captain Raleigh Croshaw planted 500 acres between Fox Hill and the Pamunkey River to establish Elizabeth City.

Croshaw was last referred to on 22 November 1624. On 27 December 1624, Captain Francis West was directed to inventory his estate. These dates support a death date between 22 November and 27 December 1624, in Virginia. The supplied notes observe that no wife was named in the estate settlement and that no wife was listed in the 1623 census, leading to the belief that she had died by that time.

The material includes later family traditions that Croshaw had a second wife named Ursula Unity Patawomeck and that she may have been connected to Patawomeck or Powhatan leadership. It also proposes children named Richard, Joseph, Benjamin, Noah, and Ursula Unity, and suggests additional relationships among Croshaw descendants and Native families. These assertions are presented as tradition, speculation, or compiler opinion in the supplied material and are not established here as proven relationships. The later landholding activities attributed to Joseph and Richard Croshaw in York County in 1637 and 1638 occurred after Raleigh Croshaw’s death.

Historical context

Croshaw lived during the early years of English settlement in Virginia, when the Virginia Company of London financed Jamestown and its investors were known as adventurers. The colony faced shortages of food and conflict as English settlers sought trade with Native communities. In this period, corn trading, river travel, defensive outposts, land patents, and service in the House of Burgesses were important features of colonial life. The term “Ancient Planter,” as used in the supplied patent quotation, referred to an early settler rather than to an occupation.

Sources & research

John Smith, The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624), including the complimentary verses attributed in the supplied material to Raleigh Croshaw.
Captain Ralph Hamor, narrative of the capture of Pocahontas, cited in the supplied material for statements concerning Japasaw and Powhatan.
Nell Marion Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers, cited in the supplied material concerning a patent associated with Toby West and later landholding by Joseph Croshaw.
Second supply ship manifest list, cited in the supplied material for the reported 1608 voyage of the Mary and Margaret.
Corporation of Elizabeth City statement, quoted in the supplied material regarding Croshaw’s 500-acre planting.
http://www.multiwords.de/genealogy/Ja12%20Japasaw.html
https://herebedragons.weebly.com/colonial-land-grants.html