Colonial governor of Virginia, prominent in the seventeenth century. His name first appears when the second charter of Virginia was given to a company on May 23, 1609. The officers therein named were West, de la Warr, Somers, Newport, Dale, Wainman and Sir Thomas Gates as lieutenant-general. The colonization of Virginia thereafter became greatly stimulated, and money was contributed in aid of the purpose, and nine vessels, with nearly six hundred emigrants, left Europe for America, under Newport, Somers and Gates. They sailed in May 1609. Only seven ships reached Virginia; one, with its passengers, was lost at sea; the other, that conveyed Gates, was stranded at one of the Bermuda Islands. Here Gates and his companions improvised two small vessels in the course of nine months, and set sail for their original destination, which they reached on May 24, 1610. They found the Virginia colony in a condition of anarchy and neglect, and its numbers reduced by sickness and famine to about fifty individuals. Gates and the colonists then decided to abandon the settlement and sail coastwise for Newfoundland in four remaining pinnaces that still floated on the river, and seek a passage to England. But no sooner had they begun their voyage than they encountered Lord de la Warr, who, ascending the river on June 9, 1610, with new colonists and fresh supplies, persuaded Gates and his party to return to Jamestown. Lord de la Warr had promised to send to the council an early report of the condition of the colony, and for this purpose dispatched Sir Thomas Gates to England, who, with great energy, gathered means and recruits, and in August 1611, reached Jamestown safely, with six vessels and about three hundred colonists. He assumed the functions of governor, established divine worship, law and order, and in 1611 made new settlements in Henrico. In March 1612, a third patent was granted to the company by the crown, that, for the time being, gave them control of the Bermuda Islands, and all other islands within 300 leagues of the Virginia shore. Sir Thomas Gates returned to England in 1614 in the interest of the colonists. Of his subsequent history we have no record.
