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Anas Todkill

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Anas Todkill was an English-born early American carpenter, soldier, and explorer who accompanied Captain John Smith on each of his explorations of the Colony of Virginia.

Biography

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Todkill arrived with the Jamestown fleet in 1606 as a servant of Captain John Martin.[1][2] Todkill accompanied John Smith on several early voyages in Virginia, and his written accounts of their journeys are included in the published works of Smith.[3][4][5] Todkill was the only colonist to accompany Smith on both of his Chesapeake Bay expeditions as well as the visit to Powhatan and the Pamunkey confrontation.[6][3][7] Todkill was briefly held captive but released at the urging of Pocahontas.[8][9] In 1609,[10] Todkill and Nathaniel Powell took part in an unsuccessful expedition to locate surviving colonists of the Roanoke Colony, at the personal request of governor Thomas Gates.[11][12][13]

Todkill returned to England by the 1610s.[14][15][16]

Legacy

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The writings of Todkill describing a dance given by the women of Powhatan's camp has been suggested by historians as a possible basis for the "living Drolerie" as portrayed in Act III of the Shakespeare play The Tempest.[17] The 1885 novel My Lady Pokahontas was written by John Esten Cooke and published with Todkill listed as the author.[18][19][20] Cooke published a short story titled Pokahontas at Court which also listed Todkill as the author/narrator.[21]

A historic reenactment and program at Colonial Williamsburg portrays Todkill.[22][23]

Works

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  • The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles, 1624. (listed as co-author of chapter five)[24]
  • A map of Virginia: With a description of the countrey, the commodities, people, government and religion. VVritten by Captaine Smith, sometimes governour of the countrey. Whereunto is annexed the proceedings of those colonies, since their first departure from England, with the discourses, orations, and relations of the salvages, and the accidents that befell them in all their iournies and discoveries. Taken faithfully as they were written out of the writings of Doctor Russell. Tho. Studley. Anas Todkill. Ieffra Abot. Richard Wiefin. Will. Phettiplace. Nathaniel Povvell. Richard Pots. And the relations of divers other diligent observers there present then, and now many of them in England. Oxford: Printed by Joseph Barnes. 1612. Quarto. Arber 1910, pp. I:41–174 Edited by W[illiam] S[immonds]. An abridged edition was printed in Purchas 1625, pp. IV:1691–1704.

References

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  1. ^ "Jamestown Colony 1606". www.packrat-pro.com. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  2. ^ "The First Residents of Jamestown - Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  3. ^ a b Smith, John. "The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: With the Names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Governours From Their First Beginning Ano: 1584. To This Present 1624". docsouth.unc.edu. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  4. ^ Melczek, Dale J. (1958). "The Testimony of Captain John Smith". Polish American Studies. 15 (1/2): 33–35. ISSN 0032-2806. JSTOR 20147471.
  5. ^ Mumford, James Gregory (1900). Mumford Memoirs: Being the Story of the New England Mumfords from the Year 1655 to the Present Time. Priv. print. by D.B. Updike, the Merrymount Press.
  6. ^ Taliaferro, William B. (1894). "A Few Things about Our County". The William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine. 3 (1): 19–27. doi:10.2307/1915499. ISSN 1936-9530. JSTOR 1915499.
  7. ^ Browne, Francis Fisher (1885). The Dial. Jansen, McClurg.
  8. ^ Dorsey, Ella Loraine (1906). Pocahontas. G. E. Howard.
  9. ^ "The Rappahannock in Virginia". www.virginiaplaces.org. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  10. ^ Arner, Robert D. (1978). "The Romance of Roanoke: Virginia Dare and the Lost Colony in American Literature". The Southern Literary Journal. 10 (2): 5–45. ISSN 0038-4291. JSTOR 20077586.
  11. ^ "Colonial National Historical Park: A Study of Virginia Indians and Jamestown-The First Century (Chapter 4)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2025-06-18.
  12. ^ Clausen, Christopher (2007). "Between Two Worlds: The familiar story of Pocahontas was mirrored by that of a young Englishman given as a hostage to her father". The American Scholar. 76 (3): 80–90. ISSN 0003-0937. JSTOR 41221734.
  13. ^ Bach, Rebecca Ann (2000), Bach, Rebecca Ann (ed.), ""A Virginia Maske"", Colonial Transformations: The Cultural Production of the New Atlantic World, 1580–1640, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 191–219, doi:10.1007/978-1-137-08099-8_6, ISBN 978-1-137-08099-8, retrieved 2025-06-19
  14. ^ Bredahl, A. Carl (1988). "Responding to the "Airplant" Tradition: John Cooke's "My Lady Pokahontas"". The Southern Literary Journal. 21 (1): 54–63. ISSN 0038-4291. JSTOR 20077943.
  15. ^ Kopacki, Thaddeus (1958). "Leading Writers about the Poles in Jamestown". Polish American Studies. 15 (1/2): 31–33. ISSN 0032-2806. JSTOR 20147470.
  16. ^ Tyler, Lyon Gardiner (1907). Narratives of Early Virginia, 1606-1625. C. Scribner's Sons.
  17. ^ Kelsey, Rachel M. (1914). "Indian Dances in "The Tempest"". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 13 (1): 98–103. ISSN 0363-6941. JSTOR 27700562.
  18. ^ "My Lady Pokahontas, writ by Anas Todkill [Front cover]". www.digitalcommonwealth.org. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  19. ^ Cooke, John Esten (1907). My lady Pokahontas: a true relation of Virginia. Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin.
  20. ^ "Elfinspell: Online Intro to My Lady Pokahontas, A True Relation Of Virginia. Writ by Anas Todkill, Puritan and Pilgrim, [in 1618], With Notes by John Esten Cooke, online Colonial Virginia, Pocahontas and John Smith fiction, controversial history, online text". elfinspell.com. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  21. ^ Bolenius, Emma Miller (1927). Literature in the Junior High School ... Houghton Mifflin.
  22. ^ "Anas Todkill's Jamestown | Historic Jamestowne". Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  23. ^ "Meet Anas Todkill: "A Tractable Trade" | Historic Jamestowne". Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  24. ^ "The English Establish a Foothold at Jamestown, 1606-1610 | Colonial Settlement, 1600s - 1763 | U.S. History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
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