This, the 1602-03 panel deals firstly with the famous voyage of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold to Virginia to found a colony on Cuttyhunk Island. (There is a monument to Gosnold on Cuttyhunk today).
Gosnold comes from Suffolk, a kinsman of the Gosnolds of Ipswich
and Otley whose arms (shown here), are ‘Per pale crenellee Or and Azure’. To mark the fact that the family
are connected with the two places, firstly some Tudor houses in ipswich are shown at the top here. The butterflies are, on
the left, the male Small Tortoiseshell aglais urticae and, on the right the male Clouded Yellow colias croceus.
Back in 1571 Gosnold had
been to Cambridge and then into law in London. Then he met the Earl of Southampton who has become patron (a privilege that
he shares with William Shakespeare) and has financed this voyage of discovery to America, the departure point from England
being Falmouth in Cornwall.
Defending Falmouth harbour is Pendennis Castle (built by Henry VIII and still existing today). Two of the soldiers who man the huge fortification are illustrated
here on either side of it. On the left is a musketeer. His powder flask is shown. To the right is a pikeman with his 8ft long
pike, a menace to horsemen as well as advancing infantry.
The lower main scene shows the fateful day when Bartholomew says his farewells to
his family. His three daughters watch as he kisses his wife before joining one of his seamen who carries his ditty box and
stands in the doorway waiting to escort him to his ship the Concord. Note the portrait on the wall. It’s of
Gosnold’s mother. Like her daughters, she’s no oil painting but her son does bear a demonstrable resemblance to
her, as people remark. On the table in the foreground is a taper holder.
Captain William Parker’s coat-of-arms is illustrated at the
base of this scene not only because this year he’s the Mayor of Plymouth but he too is interested in colonising America,
as will be revealed in panel 1605.
