Emmanuel Altham

Emmanuel Altham was an English writer of letters, merchant-adventurer, and ship captain associated with Plymouth Colony in the 1620s. The standard modern edition of Three Visitors to Early Plymouth identifies him as living from 1600 to 1635 or 1636, and it preserves four of his letters as valuable firsthand accounts of the colony.

He arrived in Plymouth in 1623 as captain of the Little James. Sources connected with Plimoth Patuxet describe him as an English gentleman and an early investor in the Company of Adventurers of New Plymouth. In letters sent home, he wrote about the settlement’s resources, its people, and major events he witnessed, including the marriage celebration of Governor William Bradford and the visit of Massasoit and other Native leaders.

Today, Altham is remembered less as a literary author in the modern sense than as a sharp observer whose correspondence gives historians rare, candid glimpses of colonial life. His letters stand out because they record Plymouth from the viewpoint of a visitor and supporter rather than one of the colony’s better-known leaders.