MassachusettsHISTORY EXPLORERS GRADES 3–8
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evidence
Information from a source that helps us test a claim.
source
A document, object, image, or account we can examine.
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An explanation based on clues; it still needs checking.
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Moving from one place to another to live.
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Evidence created by someone who experienced a time or event.

Two voyages. Many perspectives.

Bartholomew Gosnold

How can one captain’s voyages connect Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Jamestown?

Published in 1706, more than a century after Gosnold’s 1602 voyage.University of Virginia Special Collections, F7 .G67 1706, via Encyclopedia VirginiaImage & source record ↗

Meet the navigator

Bartholomew Gosnold was an English sea captain who lived from 1571 to 1607. In 1602, his expedition visited the coast and islands of present-day Massachusetts. Five years later, he helped establish the English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.

1602 ship
Concord
1607 ship
Godspeed
Massachusetts connection
Cape Cod · Martha’s Vineyard · Cuttyhunk
Check the evidenceJamestown Rediscovery · Captain Bartholomew Gosnold ↗

Begin with the people already here

Wampanoag people knew, named, traveled through, and cared for these homelands long before Gosnold arrived. Noepe is a Wampanoag name for Martha’s Vineyard. A voyage can be new to a visitor without being the beginning of a place’s history.

Gosnold’s story is one part of a much larger history. Read the Aquinnah Tribe’s own account alongside the English voyage records. Wampanoag communities continue today.

Check the evidenceWampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) · its own history ↗
01

Voyage of 1602

Follow the Concord, a short-lived trading post, and the return to England.

02

Names & homelands

Investigate codfish, grapevines, Martha, and the names that came before.

03

Jamestown · 1607

Meet three ships and connect the New England voyage with Virginia.

04

Contact & disease

Learn how trade, travel, and disease changed communities.

05

The burial question

Weigh the clues behind a possible identification.

06

Maps & primary sources

Open original maps, printed accounts, and archaeological records.

Before the Atlantic voyages

Gosnold grew up in Suffolk, England. He studied at Cambridge and later studied law in London. He married Mary Goldinge in 1595. Family connections helped him find supporters for voyages.

He also joined a 1597 expedition to the Azores and took part in privateering: attacking enemy shipping with government permission. Navigation, trade, warfare, and colonization were connected in the world he knew.

Check the evidenceEncyclopedia Virginia · Natalie Zacek, Gosnold biography ↗
Open the map & source room →Compare more explorers’ maps →Continue with Wampanoag voices →

Take a virtual field trip

Context image for Aquinnah: a living homeland. The visit page identifies the image.Aquinnah: a living homelandVineyard & CapeContext image for Cape Cod: a changing coast. The visit page identifies the image.Cape Cod: a changing coastVineyard & Cape
All field trips →

Investigate with an interactive

John Smith’s New England map, the exact Leventhal collection item linked here.John Smith’s New England mapExploration & mapsTopic illustration; not a screenshot of the activityChamplain’s voyagesExploration & mapsAquinnah cliffs in Wampanoag homelands today.Living Native nationsNative nations
All history interactives →
Explore the six lessons →Image credits & sources →
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