Return of the First Settlers

In 1586 Sir Fancis Drake sailed into Portsmouth carrying home the disillusioned settlers from Sir Walter Raleigh's first settlement to Virginia. Their leader, Ralph Lane, is credited with bringing potatoes and tobacco into the Town. Lane and his crew smoked the tobacco to the wonder of the local inhabitants. The collections of the Portsmouth Museum Service include a pipe from this date possibly manufactured at nearby Oyster Street where archeological excavations have discovered one of the earliest pipe manufacturers in the country. To find out more about this ill fated colony: http://www.btinternet.com/~richard.towers/jim/raleigh1.html Ralph Lane was knighted and in 1588 appointed Captain of Southsea Castle.