VIRGINIA DARE.

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 129, 22 August 1927, Page 12

VIRGINIA DARE.

FIRST WHITE CHILD OF THE EMPIRE. The first white child of the British Empire overseas was Virginia Dare, daughter of two of the settlers sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in the days when he was dreaming of Virginia as the foundation of British power beyond the seas. A tablet to the memory of Virginia Dare was unveiled last year on Roanoke Island by the British Ambassador to America. This memorial is, perhaps, one of the most remarkable monuments of the English-speaking world. The i&sgriptioj

on the stone, now published, is as follow : On this site, in July-August, 1585 (old st3’le), colonists sent out from England by Sir Walter Raleigh built a fort, called by them The New Fort in Virginia. These colonists were the first settlers of the English race in America. They returned to England in July, 1586, with Sir Francis Drake. Near this place was born, on the 13th of August, 1587, Virginia Dare, the first child of English parents horn in America —daughter of Ananias Dare and Eleanor White, his wife, members of another band of colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587. On Sunday, August 20, 1587, Virginia Dare was baptised. Mantes, the friendly chief of the Hatteras Indians, had been baptised on the Sunday preceding. These baptisms are the first known celebrations of a Christian sacrament in the territory of the thirteen original United States.