_East Anglia’s historic links to North America and USA

East Anglia has a long history with the United States of America, stretching all the way back to the Magna Carta and including a Founding Father, the tobacco farmer who created the original Special Relationship, and the lawyer who gave Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard their names.

Four hundred years later during the second world war, the flow of people ‘across the Pond’ reversed as thousands of men and women of the United States Eighth Army Air Force flew missions from bases across the region in support of the Allied war effort in what was called The Friendly Invasion.

What is Bury St Edmunds’ link with Magna Carta?

In November 1214, 26 barons met secretly at Bury St Edmunds Abbey, swearing an oath to compel King John to accept The Charter of Liberties, a proclamation of Henry I and precursor to the Magna Carta, on which the American Constitution is based.
The US-based National Society of Magna Carta Dames, who can trace their ancestry back to the barons, donated the Shields of the Barons carved around the walls of the quire and sanctuary at St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

Who Was Bartholomew Gosnold?

Were it not for an adventurer from Suffolk, we wouldn’t have famous North American landmarks Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, and Virginia in the USA may not have been settled.

Bartholomew Gosnold (1571-1607) was born in Grundisburgh near Woodbridge and grew up at his family’s ancestral hall, Otley Hall in Suffolk. It was here at Otley Hall, unchanged to this day and a fine example of late medieval architecture, that Gosnold planned two voyages that would result in the founding of Jamestown and the United States.

On March 26 1602, the Concord sailed from Falmouth for North Virginia, with Gosnold as nautical captain, pioneering a successful direct route to the New World. It was first European expedition recorded.

On May 14, 1602, Concord made landfall off the southern coast of Maine and the following day Gosnold the ship sailed into Provincetown Harbor, naming the peninsula Cape Cod after the huge schools of fish sighted.

On May  21,1602, Gosnold sighted the island he named Martha's Vineyard after his deceased infant daughter and the area’s wild grapes. Martha is buried in St Edmundsbury Cathedral churchyard.

On April 21, 1606 that King James I granted an exclusive Royal Charter for Gosnold to settle Virginia. This was the start of The Virginia Company of London.

Otley Hall was used as a recruiting base for Gosnold’s second voyage, with The Godspeed setting sail on December 20, 1606, 14 years before The Mayflower left from Plymouth.

They made landfall on the coast of Virginia on April 26 1607, and later reached the settlement which Gosnold named Jamestown, in honour of the king, on May 13, 1607. This was the first permanent English settlement in North America and, ultimately, the United States of America.

His adventures in Jamestown were to be short lived, as Gosnold died just 4 months later on August 22, 1607 after falling ill.
In Bury St Edmunds, where Gosnold practised law, visitors can see a sculpture of The Godspeed in the Refectory garden of St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

Who was the Norfolk man who saved Jamestown?

It might seem incongruous to see a Native Indian princess depicted on a north Norfolk village sign, but then you need to know the story of her husband, John Rolfe (1585-1622), the man who saved Jamestown and without whom it’s likely residents of the USA might now be speaking Spanish, French or Dutch.

Rolfe created the original Special Relationship by marrying Pocahontas in the first inter-racial marriage in the new colony. The couple had a son, Thomas, and travelled to England in 1616 to promote colonisation and investment in Virginia. On the trip they visited Heacham. A mulberry bush Pocahontas is said to have planted is still alive and producing fruit at Heacham Manor Hotel.

Sadly, Pocahontas died in Gravesend prior to returning to Virginia, but Rolfe did go back, taking with him a new cash crop. The successful cultivation of tobacco saved the fledgling colony from starvation.

In St Mary the Virgin Church in Heacham where Rolfe was christened you’ll find a tablet memorial to Pocahontas, placed above plaques to her husband’s parents, John and Dorothy.

How a Norfolk man created the Special Relationship with the USA

Why are The Mayflower and Pilgrim Fathers credited with colonising North America?

On 16 September 1620, 13 years after Gosnold's death, The Mayflower would follow the northern route across the North Atlantic that he pioneered, following his charts into Cape Cod Bay.

Unlike Gosnold and his companions, who were working under the patronage of King James I, The Pilgrims were escaping the English Crown and were now able to worship freely.

It’s believed The Mayflower was built in Harwich and it’s certain that it was commanded and part-owned by Harwich resident Captain Christopher Jones (1570-1622).

Jones sailed the ship to Norway, the Mediterranean and France, exporting woollen cloth and importing wine, before agreeing to take the religious separatists known as the Pilgrims from Plymouth to the New World in 1620. The majority of passengers on the ship came from Norfolk and Suffolk.

Jones’ former home is still there today, on King’s Head Street, as is the church where he married, St Nicholas.

A sculpture depicting the Mayflower can be seen at Parkeston by the International Port.

How a descendant of Norfolk declared Thanksgiving Day

It was President Abraham Lincoln, whose family came from Hingham in Norfolk, who declared a national Thanksgiving Day in 1863.

The decision of Samuel Lincoln to leave Hingham and sail from Great Yarmouth to Salem in 1638 helped start the chain of events that led to his descendant, Abraham, becoming the 16th President of the United States. The Lincolns moved from Hingham, Massachusetts (named after the Norfolk village) to Pennsylvania, Virginia and then Kentucky, where Abraham was born.

He led the United States through the American Civil War, famously abolished slavery in American, and delivered the Gettysburg Address, one of the most famous speeches which began: ‘Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal’.

The sentiment was taken from the writings of a Norfolk man, Thomas Paine. More of him in a moment.

There is an Abraham Lincoln memorial at St Andrews Church, Hingham in Norfolk.

Did a Norfolk man save the American War of Independence?

Commemorated with a gilded bronze statue outside Thetford town hall, American Founding Father Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was educated at Thetford Grammar School and emigrated to America in 1774 with the help of Benjamin Franklin.

The statue was commissioned by American philanthropist Joseph Lewis, who believed Paine was the true author of the American Declaration of Independence. That may or may not be true, but his writing certainly saved the Revolutionary War from failure.

His famous pamphlet Common Sense, written in 1776, advocated colonial America’s complete independence from Britain, and helped rally support for this cause. It sold more than 100,000 copies in just a few months, and another Founding Father John Adams said that ‘without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.’

George Washington used Paine's words to rally his troops after the 'Crossing of the Delaware' and claim a famous victory over the English. Before the battle, Washington had never beaten the enemy. After it, he never lost.

It’s also believed Paine was the man who came up with the name The United States of America for the newly-independent country.

Paine also spent time in Revolutionary France where he was imprisoned in the Bastille and narrowly avoided an appointment with Madame Guillotine through American diplomatic pressure.

How a Norfolk man saved the American Revolution