Early Exploration, A-31 - North Carolina Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Text on marker:

Early Exploration

In 1622 an expedition from Jamestown, Va., led by John Pory, explored the Chowan River area..

This historical marker is located on US 13/158 Bypass at Chowan River bridge in Gates County. It was erected in 1948.

The North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources does not have an essay on this marker. The website famousamericans.net has a short biographical sketch on John Pory, from which the following is excerpted:

PORY, John, pioneer, born in England about 1570; died in Virginia before 1635. He was educated at Cambridge, and in 1612 was a resident of Paris. During 1619-'21 he was secretary of the Virginia colony, and he was elected speaker of the first representative assembly that was ever held in this country, which convened in Jamestown on 30 July, 1619. He visited Plymouth, Massachusetts, shortly after its settlement by the Pilgrims from Leyden, but in 1623 returned to Virginia as one of the commissioners of the privy council, and died in Virginia. He assisted Hakluyt in his geographical work, and was considered a man of great learning. His account of excursions among the Indians is given in Smith's "Generall Historie," and he translated and published "A Geographical Historie of Africa by John Leo, a More, borne in Granada and brought up in Barbarie" (London, 1600).

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