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G. Smith is quite right. Hakluyt's Principle Navigations volume 8 p.416 reports that John White found on a tree by the beach "CRO : which letters presently we knew to signifie the place, where I should find the planters seated" On p.417 he further reports that John White found on a tree by the fort entrance "in fayre Capitall letters was graven CROATOAN without any crosse or signe of distresse;" Both were carved in capital letters as written in the report. .
To be honest, I would be willing to bet that this was most likely an heirloom of the Towles family of Accomac County Va.My reasoning is that Henry Towles married a Kendall in the mid 17th century and it was Henry Towles who was been cited as having sealed an official document with his family signet ring - a lion passant; not the Kendall family.
Observation: In National Geographic and other sources, the word you have spelled here, "Croatan", is spelled "Croatoan". Signed: An old proofreader who can't help herself.
Correction to first words in previous post: "A gilded copper-alloy signet ring"
A gilded copy-alloy signet ring of very similar style was found near Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex, England, in May 2004. It is nearly identical in design (less worn), age (1400-1600 AD), and size (Width: 4.2 mm, Diameter: 20.8 mm, Thickness: 2.1 mm, Weight: 4.72 g) Shoreham-by-Sea is on a bay between Worthing and Brighton along the British Channel shoreline. That is about 260 miles east of Pelyn, Cornwall, where the Kendall family with lion passant crest was living in the 16th century. Notably, the curator of the British Museum's "virtual museum" website tags the design as a "standing lion" aka rampant. The posting can be found at http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/67514. Unique ID is SUSS-C937A8. It would be interesting to know what an expert in medieval signet rings would conclude by comparison of the West Sussex find to the one found on Hatteras. Same craftsman? For same person/family? Perhaps a less expensive copy of the gold ring found on Hatteras?
It would be helpful to have a link from this digital collection page to the manuscript collection page about this item - http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/1061/ - where there is more of a description of Dr. Phelps findings. Thank you for sharing this discovery with us.
This is a great presentation for this unique find. Kudos to Dr. Phelps and ECU!One thing please. Is it possible to pause the 360 degree video and continue without starting over so one can study it at different angles?
you need flash player to watch, you can get it here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
the 360 view is accessible again :]
you used to be able to view this as a 360 image - where did it go?
Marvelous find. Dr. David S. Phelps was a marvelous director and archaeologist. Forever, my hat's off to him.
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The prancing or dancing lion is normally associated with the Sutton family. One of the lost colonists, Martyn, was also a Sutton. The Kendall family crest is different...