Lane, Sir Ralph

Lane, Sir Ralph, c.1530–1603, leader of the first attempted English settlement in America, on Roanoke Island, N.C. Sent by Sir Walter Raleigh, the expedition of over 100 colonists left England in Apr., 1585, in a fleet of seven ships commanded by Sir Richard Grenville. The group landed on Roanoke in August but returned to England with Sir Francis Drake in the summer of 1586. Lane's account of the settlement appeared in Richard Hakluyt's The Principal Navigations … of the English Nation (1589).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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