Samuel Argall, English captain and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1572)
Sir Samuel Argall (1572 or 1580 – 24 January 1626) was an English adventurer and naval officer.
As a sea captain, in 1609, Argall was the first to determine a shorter northern route from England across the Atlantic Ocean to the new English colony of Virginia, based at Jamestown, and made numerous voyages to the New World. He captained one of Lord De La Warr's ships in the successful rescue mission to Virginia in 1610 which saved the colony from starvation.
He is best known for his diplomacy by force with the Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy. He abducted the Chief's daughter, Pocahontas, on 13 April 1613, and held her as a captive at Henricus as security against the return of English captives and property held by Powhatan. Pocahontas had long been a friend of the English and was treated with great respect according to her rank, as the English considered her an Algonquian princess.
Eventually peace and trade relations were restored between the English and the Powhatan Confederacy, after English planter John Rolfe, of nearby Varina Plantation, met and married Pocahontas. Argall was also successful in taking action against French efforts at colonisation in Acadia in North America, and in North Africa. London ruled that the French violated the Charter of the Virginia Company.
Knighted by King James I after serving as Governor of the Virginia Colony, Argall was accused by planters of having been excessively stern in his treatment of them. Examinations of his conduct in London and the opinion of some modern historians have disputed these charges.