Roanoke Colonies Research Newsletter
Volume 4.2 (May 1997)

Digging the Weapemeocs
by Tom Parramore, Emeritus, Meredith College

It seems not to occur to researchers that the "Croatoan" and "Cro" signs at Roanoke Island in 1590 directed John White or other Englishmen to the Croatoans only for information about the 1587 colony rather than indicating where the colonists would be found. Given the meager means of the Croatoans, it is unlikely, in any case, that they could have entertained the 1587 colony for more than a brief period. (Note, for example, the Croatoans' concern in July, 1587 lest White's people "gather or spill any" Croatoan corn, "for that they had but little" [Quinn 2: 526].) The same objection applies to Quinn's conjecture that perhaps twenty or so 1587 colonists were sent to Croatoan Island to await White's return from England.

White's colonists told him explicitly in 1587 that they intended to move "50 miles further up into the maine" (Quinn 2: 533). They clearly had in mind neither Croatoan nor Skicoake (reckoned by Lane at 120 miles distant). The only tenable meaning of the declaration was that they meant to reside with the accommodating Weapemeoc of Okisko on the north side of Albemarle Sound. The Chesepians, we need to recall, were thought in 1587 to be allies in Wingina's alleged plan to massacre Lane's colonists.

Because a Weapemeoc faction opposed Okisko's pro-English policy, it would have been folly for White's colonists, on leaving Roanoke Island, to have directed him to Weapemeoc. It was necessary that he be informed about the Weapemeoc situation by persons who knew where Okisko's authority prevailed and where it did not. The Croatoans could readily furnish this information.

It was perhaps Weapemeoc factionalism that led to the quick destruction of the tribe-and colonists-after 1590. John Smith evidently knew nothing of them and, despite the imposing territory shown under their control on White's maps, they do not appear on those of the Jamestown colony, having doubtless already broken up into Yeopim and other remnant communities.

Archaeologists would be well advised to direct their attention to the region between the lower Chowan and Pasquotank rivers in search of evidence of the fate of the Lost Colony. In this regard, there is no defensible reason for them to be poking about Virginia Beach.

Citations come from The Roanoke Voyages, 1584-1590: Documents to Illustrate the English Voyages to North America Under the Patent Granted to Walter Raleigh in 1584, edited by David Beers Quinn, 2 vols., Hakluyt Society 2nd ser. 104 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1955; rpt. New York: Dover, 1991).

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