Philip Amadas

Portion of Elizabethan room at Fort Raleigh visitor center

National Park Service

Quick Facts

Significance:

Co-leader of 1584 English expedition to the Outer Banks

Place of Birth:

Unknown

Date of Birth:

Circa 1550

Place of Death:

Unknown

Date of Death:

1618

Place of Burial:

Unknown

One of the two commanders sent to the New World in 1584, very little is known about the life of Philip Amadas. His voyage with Arthur Barlowe began the English push for colonization in North America yet his contributions from those first two voyages are largely unrecognized. Without his time in the New World, it is possible the English colonization of North America would have unfolded differently.

Philip Amadas was born sometime in 1550 to a wealthy merchant family in Hull, England. He had some seafaring experience and may have at one time been a soldier. Amadas was known to anger easily, notably getting involved in a dispute when another man yelled at him from his boat that ended in throwing items and threats for revenge. He began working for Sir Walter Raleigh prior to 1584 and may have even participated in Thomas Hariot’s classes on navigation.

In 1584, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe were selected to lead a small reconnaissance mission to the New World. The goal was to find a suitable location for Raleigh’s privateering base. Amadas and Barlowe left England on April 27, 1584, with two ships and an unknown number of men, but estimated to be less than 100 total. They traveled west, stopping in the Canary Islands on May 10 and arriving in the West Indies (Caribbean) on June 10. By early July, they reached the coast of North Carolina. They made landfall at what is presumed to be Bodie Island (but may have been Ocracoke Island due to distance discrepancies in later editions).

On their third day there, three Roanoc men in a canoe approached the English vessels and came aboard meeting Amadas and Barlowe. The English gave the men gifts such as shirts, hats, and tastes of their food and wine. The men departed and the next day returned with more men. One of these men was Granganimeo, brother of the Roanoc Chief Wingina. Because Wingina was recovering from a battle injury, Granganimeo acted in his place. It is highly likely that Amadas was involved in these meetings with the Roanoc and continued to be involved while the English were there. The Roanoc and the English traded with one another and tried to learn more about the unfamiliar customs of the other. The English were shown Roanoke Island and all it had to offer, leading to their decision to choose it as the site of the future 1585 Military Colony.

When the English departed a few weeks later, two native men had joined the voyage. Manteo, a member of the Croatoan and Wanchese, a member of the Roanoke, agreed to travel to England with Amadas and Barlowe and learn to speak English. The return trip was mostly uneventful and Amadas and Barlowe’s ships arrived back in England in mid-September. Philip Amadas was named Admiral of Virginia and recruited for the second voyage to the New World, planned for 1585. They left England in April of that year. The goal was to set up a privateering base in the New World, with soldiers under the direction of Ralph Lane. Due to storms and damaged supplies, only 107 men were left on Roanoke instead of the planned 600.  Amadas was one of the men left behind under the direction of Ralph Lane. It is likely that he was involved in the English attack and murder of Wingina/Pemisapan. He returned to England with the other men after being rescued by Sir Francis Drake in 1586. His contributions, if any, to the military colony are unknown. After his return, the only other information known about Amadas is his death in 1618.

Philip Amadas is one of the first Englishmen to make contact with the native tribes of North Carolina, a man who helped set the stage for English colonization, and a bit of a mystery himself. Despite a leading role with his trip to the New World in 1584, he rarely is mentioned as a member of early English colonization attempts. However, the impact made by his trip would have global ramifications for centuries afterward.