Sir Thomas Gates

Thomas Gates was one of the founding members of the Virginia Company of London and served as its governor before he was sent in 1609 as a head of the large resupply fleet to Virginia that consisted of nine ships with over 500 colonists. As his vessel was shipwrecked on Bermuda, he succeeded to reach Virginia after nearly a year finding the settlers on the brink of extinction as only one tenth of them survived the winter. The arrival of another fleet under Lord De La Warr gave the colony a relief, and Gates performed a function of governor of Virginia in 1610 and then a lieutenant governor from 1611 until 1614.

Gates made large efforts to promote the Virginia Company in England, and made a set of rules for the colony which were published in 1612 under the title “For the Colony in Virginea Britannia. Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, & c.” During his residence in Americas, he took part in confrontations with the Indians during the First Anglo-Powhatan War (1609–1614).

In 1614 Gates had returned to England, and it is thought that he died in the East Indies in 1622.