Captain Ralph Hamor

Captain Ralph Hamor was one of the original colonists to settle in Virginia, and author of A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia, which he wrote when he returned to London in 1615. Spellings of his first and last name vary and alternate spellings include "Raphe", "Hamer", and "Haman".

Hamor was one of eight children born to Raphe Hamor and Mabell Loveland Hamor and was baptized in the parish of Saint Nicholas Acons, London on February 16, 1589. It is likely that he was born in this parish. As his father was a wealthy merchant tailor, Hamor had an excellent education and was able to attend Brasenose College, Oxford and a student with his name is listed as admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

At some point in the early 1620s Hamor married Elizabeth Fuller Clements, with whom he had no recorded children.

In 1609, Hamor and his father, both members of the London Company, joined the Second Charter of Virginia to sail to the New World as part of the large investment in settling a new colony in Virginia. Funded by the Earls of Salisbury, Suffolk, Southampton, Pembroke, and others, a fleet of nine ships set sail in May, 1609, with five hundred people aboard for what would be known as Jamestown. The fleet, led by the admiral ship the "Sea-Venture" and commanded by the three commissions of Captain Christopher Newport, Sir Thomas Gates, and Sir George Somers, set sail for Jamestown. But, as the fleet passed Bermuda on July 25, the tail end of a hurricane caught the flagship, which carried 150 passengers, stranding it on the island and sinking one of the other smaller vessels. Captain Ralph Hamor's ship, along with the other six ships commanded by Captains Ratcliffe, Martin, Wood, Webbe, Moon, King and Davies arrived in Virginia safe.

In the fall of 1609, Hamor returned to London, returning to Virginia the following spring. On April 9, 1610, Captain Hamor escorted Lord Delaware and about one hundred new settlers, including "Frenchmen to plant vines, and Swiss to find mines," aboard the "De La Warr", the "Blessing of Plymouth" and the "Hercules of Rye", back to Virginia. The three ships arrived safely in Jamestown on Sunday, June 20, 1610.

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