Jack Strawe (Indigenous name unknown)

Strawe enters the record in the journal of Governor John Winthrop (Mass. Bay Colony) for spring of 1631 when he is brought to Boston as an interpreter by two Connecticut River Valley chiefs. Winthrop notes that he “had lived in England, & had served Sir Walter Earle, & was now turned Indian againe.” Vaughan speculates that Strawe came to England on a ship that delivered cattle to New England on behalf of investors like Walter Earle – either voluntarily or as a captive. He either stayed with Earle in London or Dorset (or both). We have placed this flag on Earle’s Charborough House in Wareham, Dorset.

Thrush, Indigenous London, 44, 57; Alden T. Vaughan, Transatlantic Encounters, 97-99.