Samuel Sharpe

**Samuel Sharpe** is the master of Bermuda Cittie and a member of the Virginia Governor's Council.

## Survivor

Sharpe was born in the Pale, as a member of a family of English burghers who fell on hard times after Tyrone's Rebellion in Ireland. The family had invested heavily in the support of the English cause, but were never compensated for their assistance after the ascension of King James.

In 1607 Sharpe signed an indenture with the Virginia Company and traveled to the new world. There he would prove himself as a competent planter, soldier and, most importantly, a survivor. Where most gentlemen where occupied with their search for gold, Sharpe proved himself a hard worker and survivalist. Sharpe was one of the sixty survivors of the winter of 1609-1610, what would later become known as the Starving Time. During this time Sharpe managed to secure a quite prominent position in Jamestown as he was able to secure supplies by trading with the natives. The survivors of the Sea Venture, the flagship of the third supply, finally arrived in may 1610 with two ships after being shipwrecked near Bermuda in july 1609. Among the survivors of the shipwreck was Sharpe's cousin, Thomas. Upon the discovery of the cataclysm that had befallen the colony, the captain of the supply mission gathered the surviving colonists and made preparations to abandon the colony and return to England.

## Bermuda Cittie

The colony was saved by the arrival of Lord De La Warr and the fourth supply mission, which also brought Sharpe's future ally, Samuel Jordan, to him. De La Warr forced the survivors to return to Jamestown. With his indenture period finished, Sharpe quickly rose in the ranks of the militia under the governance of Lord De La Warr and his expansionist policy against the natives. By 1611 he made militia captain and managed to gain the favor of governor Thomas Dale, who founded the cittie of Bermuda around 25 miles west of Jamestown.

Sharpe would go on to become an unofficial leader of the new settlement and, by virtue of his position as ancient planter, managed to secure hundreds of acres of land in Bermuda Hundred. He deferred the daily management of his plantation to his cousin Thomas while taking personal control of the Bermuda settlement with the assistance of his other cousin, William, who arrived in the colony in 1611, and his friend Samuel Jordan, who by 1614 had managed to acquire a significant amount of workable land from the Virginia Company.

Sharpe consolidated his position in 1616 when he was appointed on the council of governor Yeardley after Dale, the previous governor, had temporarily placed Sharpe in charge of Jamestown. On the council he proceeded to make allies with secretary Farlow and marshal Redwick, two council members serving the interests of plantation owner Edgar Massinger.

## Behind the Scenes

While a person named Samuel Sharpe indeed existed in the Virginia Colony as a representative of Bermuda/Charles Cittie in the House of Burgesses, nearly every other aspect of him was fictionalized for the roleplay. The actual Samuel Sharpe only arrived in Virginia in 1610, as a part of the survivors of the Sea Venture. In the RP this aspect was changed and transferred to Thomas Sharpe in order to provide a backstory for Thomas and to provide Samuel as a character that survived the starving time. The main source of information I used regarding the Sharpes can be found here.