Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 10.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

In writing the History of the Virginia Company of London, Mr. Neill made use of the above-mentioned copies, besides a large folio manuscript volume containing the letters of the Company, written in London, and the letters of the Colonial authorities, also other papers from 1621 to 1625, and a smaller folio in manuscript containing copies of earlier papers. I have given this detail of the Rev. Mr. Neill's sources of information in order to show upon what authority I stand whenever hereinafter I shall cite him as a witness.

And now let us revert to Mr. Grigsby's theory. On page 52 of Neill, it appears that John Chamberlaine wrote on the 18th December, 1611, from London, to Sir Dudley Carleton, ambassador at the Hague, as follows: “Newport, the Admiral of Virginia, is newly come home, and brings word of the arrival there of Sir Thomas Gates,” &c.

On the same page, and in reference to Chamberlaine's foregoing remark, Neill says: “After this, Newport was chosen one of the six masters of the Royal Navy, and was engaged by the East India Company to escort Sir Robert Shirley to Persia;” and for his authority Mr. Neill quotes Howe's continuation of Stowe's chronicles of England. We have no record showing that Newport ever returned to Virginia after 1611, and we have the following very strong grounds for believing that he never did return after that year to the Colony. After his return to England from Virginia in December, 1611, and his subsequent appointment to a high position in the Royal Navy, it seems he sailed for the East Indies, engaging in the meantime to convoy Sir Robert Shirley's ship to Persia. It is highly probable that the ships did not sail so early as March, 1612, which would be only three months after the arrival of Newport from Virginia.

But conceding that they did sail in March of that year, yet when we remember that in those days a voyage to the East Indies, out and home, consumed from two and a half to three years, we must admit, after making allowance for the detour to Persia, that Newport made good use of his time in getting back to London in July, 1614, after an absence only of two years and three months. We know that he did get back to London in that month and year from a foot-note by Mr. Charles Deane, recording secretary, &c., appended to Mr. Grigsby's before-mentioned letter to himself, in which Mr. Deane cites passages from letters written in London in July, 1614, stating that Newport arrived in London from the East Indies in that month and year.

As before said, we have no record of his having visited Virginia after 1611, and we have the following good reason to believe why he did not do so. Holding a permanent, honorable and well-paying position