John Ratcliffe (born John Sicklemore; – ) was an early Jamestown, Virginia settler and sea captain. Ratcliffe was an original member of the Virginia Governor's Council and became acting president (or governor) before his death. He was tortured to death by the native Pamunkey people in the winter of 1609–1610.

Biography

John Sicklemore was born in Lancashire. In early life, he changed his name to Ratcliffe as an alias. He served as a seaman before going to Virginia, and he may be the Captain Ratcliffe taken prisoner with Sir Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland and Captain Piggot, at Mülheim, in 1605.

Virginia colony

Ratcliffe commanded Discovery and became a councillor of the Jamestown Colony. Discovery was the smallest of all three ships; it had a crew of only 21 men. He became president of the colony upon the deposition of Edward Maria Wingfield on 10 September 1607. Ratcliffe fell out of favour with many colonists after enlisting men to build a governor's house. Many colonists also disagreed with how he handled trade with the natives and how he performed during the food shortages during the summer of 1608. Ratcliffe was removed in July 1608 and succeeded by Matthew Scrivener. During the administration of George Percy, Ratcliffe was sent in October 1609 to build a fort at Old Point Comfort, which was named "Algenourne Fort" after one of Percy's ancestors. Ratcliffe had been sick in the first summer of Jamestown, and never recovered to the change of climate. The account of his death was relayed by the surviving Captain William Phettiplace, and recorded by George Percy.

As a consequence of his misfortune, he was referred to as the "Luckless and Ill-fated Captain Ratcliffe".

Ratcliffe is the main antagonist of Disney's Pocahontas (1995), portrayed as a greedy and ruthlessly ambitious man who believes that the Powhatan tribe is very barbaric and has hidden gold near the outskirts of Virginia. He wants to battle the Native Americans for it, despite the fact that there was no gold discovered in colonial Virginia. Here, he was voiced by David Ogden Stiers, who gave him a very British-influenced Mid-Atlantic accent. In this adaptation, he is accompanied by his pug Percy (this name is derived from the English colonist George Percy) and by his servant Wiggins (also voiced by Stiers). Unlike the real events, he also appeared in the direct-to-video sequel Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998), where he plans to dupe King James I into allowing him to send a large navy armada to perpetrate a genocide against the Powhatans by attempting to sabotage the diplomatic meetings between Pocahontas and the king. He is finally arrested and exposed for his crimes of incompetence and treachery and is imprisoned by King James.

Notes

References

  • Jamestown – Historyisfun.org
  • Beaufort County Court House, Washington, NC, Public Records, Log of Transactions
  • Raymond F. Dolle, "Captain John Smith's Satire of Sir Walter Raleigh"
  • David Morenus, "The Real Pocahontas"
  • "Virginia Records Timeline: 1553–1743", United States Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Papers
  • Price, David A., Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation (New York: Knopf, 2003)
  • Property Records from Beaufort County Courthouse, North Carolina
  • The Jamestown Adventure: Accounts of the Virginia Colony, 1605–1614 (Real Voices, Real History) by Ed Southern (Editor) (Winston-Salem NC: Blair, 2004)
  • George Percy, "A Trewe Relacyon of the procedeings and ocurrentes of Momente which have hapned in Virginia"