Michael Sicklemore (born c. 1570s, died 1609) was an English gentleman, soldier, and explorer. He was a colonist with the Jamestown first supply and led an unsuccessful expedition to find traces of Walter Raleigh's lost Roanoke Colony.
Biography
In October 1607, Sicklemore left England for the Colony of Virginia. He arrived as a colonist with the first supply and served as a lieutenant in the army. From June through September 1608, Sicklemore was one of the selected crew members on Captain John Smith's assembled shallop (the Discovery barge) on its two expeditions throughout the Chesapeake Bay.
In late 1608, Captain John Smith tasked Sicklemore with leading an expedition to find traces of Walter Raleigh's "Lost Colony" at Roanoke Island, traveling south into the Chowanoc country. He was accompanied by two Warraskoyack tribal guides provided by the Warraskoyack chief. According to John Smith's writings, Sicklemore was described as "a very honest, valiant, and painful soldier." The expedition ultimately returned with little success; as the original record notes, "Master Sicklemore returned from Chowanoke but found little hope and less certaintie of them were left."
In 1609, Sicklemore was deputized by Captain John Martin to take charge at the Nansemond settlement during his absence amid the Anglo-Powhatan Wars. Some time after September 1609, Sicklemore went on an expedition from the settlement in an attempt to trade for food. He was found dead within a few days' time on the Nansemond River in Virginia.
Legacy
Sicklemore is remembered primarily for his role in one of the earliest organized searches for the lost Roanoke Colony, an enduring mystery in American colonial history. His name appears in the list of Jamestown colonists and in John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624).
