Samuel Argall, one of the early adventurers to Virginia, born in Bristol, England, in 1572, died in 1639. His first public exploit was the abduction of Pocahontas, in 1612, from the care of a chief who had been intrusted by Powhatan with the charge of his daughter, but who surrendered her for the bribe of a brass kettle. Taking her to Jamestown, he gave her to the governor, Lord Delaware. In 1617 he became deputy governor of Virginia, in which office he demeaned himself so tyrannically that he was recalled in 1619, returning to England with immense wealth. Under the governorship of Sir Thomas Dale he commanded an expedition which sailed in 1613 to Port Royal in Nova Scotia, which place he reduced and plundered, driving the French colonists into the woods. He also destroyed the French settlement of St. Saviour on Mount Desert island. It has been stated that on his return to Virginia he appeared before New Amsterdam, and summoned the Hollanders to surrender their territory on the ground that Henry Hudson, its discoverer, was an Englishman; but Brodhead, in his "History of New York," arrives at the conclusion that the whole story is fabulous.

After the death of Lord Delaware, Argall took charge of his estate, and letters of Lady Delaware now in existence accuse him of the most flagrant peculation.