Born on August 18, 1587, on Roanoke Island, now in North Carolina, Virginia was the first child to be born in America of English parents. Her parents, Eleanor (Ellinor, Elyonor) and Ananias Dare, had been among the 116 persons accompanying Governor John White (father of Eleanor Dare) on the second colonizing expedition to Sir Walter Raleigh╒s Virginia patent. They landed on Roanoke Island, the site of the earlier unsuccessful colony, in July 1587. On August 27, nine days after his granddaughter Virginia╒s birth, Governor White sailed back to England for supplies. War with Spain delayed his return to Roanoke until 1590, and upon landing he could find no trace of the colonists except for a cryptic inscription hinting that they had gone to seek shelter from hostile natives among the friendly Croatan tribe. It is believed that what survivors of the ╥Lost Colony╙ there may have been were absorbed into the Croatan tribe.
