author
John Pory
1572–1636
A restless early modern writer and traveler, he moved between scholarship, politics, and colonial affairs in ways that make his life feel surprisingly modern. He is especially remembered for his translation work, his lively letters, and his role in the early government of Virginia.
1 Audiobook
Three Visitors to Early Plymouth Letters about the Pilgrim settlement in New England during its first seven years
by Emmanuel Altham, John Pory, Isaack de Rasieres
About the author
Born in Norfolk in 1572, John Pory was educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and became known as a linguist, translator, traveler, and political figure. His career touched many worlds at once: he worked with the geographer Richard Hakluyt, translated Leo Africanus's A Geographical Historie of Africa into English in 1600, and built a reputation as a sharp observer of people and events.
Pory also had a public career in both England and Virginia. He served in Parliament and later went to the Virginia colony, where he became secretary of the colony and the first Speaker of the Virginia General Assembly. His letters and newsletters are a big part of why he still matters today, because they give vivid, firsthand glimpses of politics, travel, and colonial life in the early seventeenth century.
Although some sources differ on the exact year of his death, he is generally associated with the years 1572–1636. What makes him especially interesting now is the range of his work: he was not only an author, but also a translator, administrator, and early news writer whose life connected England, Europe, Africa in print, and the emerging English Atlantic world.