VI.
JOHN RATCLIFFE.
VI. President of the Council in Virginia.
VI. September 10, 1607, to September 7, 1608.
Captain John Ratcliffe was President of the Virginia
Colony from September 10, 1607, to September 7, 1608, when,
suffering from a wounded hand, he went to England, but returned
the following year, in July, in command of the Diamond,
with colonists. Many dissensions divided the Colony at this
time and its history is a sad recital of rivalries and jealousies,
privations and sufferings, among the settlers, and dangers seen
and unseen from the treacherous Indians.
It is said that Ratcliffe was "betrayed and murdered by
Powhatan in the winter of 1609-1610." In one of the manuscripts
preserved by the remarkable Hakluyt, which came
into the hands of the Rev. Samuel Purchas, and which was
"written by that honorable gentleman, Master George
Percy," we read: "The eleventh day (September, 1607)
there was certain articles laid against Master Wingfield, which
was then President; thereupon he was not only displaced out
of his Presidentship, but also from being of the Councell.
Afterwards Captaine John Ratcliffe was chosen President."
