Expert on Capt. Smith to speak at Depot

Allison Brophy Champion / Culpeper Star Exponent
Published: May 9, 2007

Culpeper will travel back four centuries tonight with a presentation at the Depot about Captain John Smith.

British author and lecturer John Haden will lead the expedition, offering his talk, "Before and After Jamestown: The Extraordinary Life of Captain John Smith of Willoughby, Lincolnshire" at 7 p.m.

Presented by the Culpeper Jamestown 2007 Committee, the free event will follow Smith's early life in Tudor, England, his "rudimentary education" and European adventures before landing on the shores of Jamestown in 1607.

Haden will tell how Smith, born in 1580, led the English colony with a strict hand for two years before returning home.
"He who does not work, will not eat," he told those early settlers, encouraging farming.

The famed captain also explored and named New England before dying at 51.

Co-chairman of the American Roots in English Soil (AIRES) project, Haden was born not far from Lincolnshire, Smith's birthplace, and feels a particular affinity for the early traveler.

Haden has written several books on the era, including "Admiral of New England: Captain John Smith and the American Dream" and "Mrs. John Rolfe of Heacham, better known as Pocahontas."

ARIES is an education project aimed at celebrating the historic connections between England and English-settled North America.

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or abrophy@ starexponent.com