Richard Pace (planter)

Richard Pace
BornMay 24, 1583
Wapping, Middlesex, England[citation needed]
DiedSeptember 17, 1627
Jamestown, Virginia Colony
Occupation(s)Carpenter, farmer
SpouseIsabella Smythe
ChildrenGeorge Pace

Richard Pace was an early settler and ancient planter in colonial Jamestown, Virginia. According to a 1622 account published by the London Company, Pace played a key role in warning the Jamestown colony of an impending Powhatan raid on the settlement.

Richard and Isabella Pace are from Stepney Parish in London.[citation needed] They married in St. Dunstan's Parish Church in October 1608: "Richard Pace of Wapping Wall Carpenter and Isabell Smyth of the same marryed the 5th day October 1608."[1] St Dunstan's has historic links with the sea and with seafarers, and was until recently the "Church of the High Seas", where births, deaths, and marriages at sea were registered. In the 17th century, when Richard Pace and Isabell Smyth married there, the parish included Wapping, a waterfront area occupied by mariners, boatbuilders, merchants, victuallers, and others concerned with London's burgeoning maritime ventures. These associations, taken together with the names, make it plausible that the couple who married in Stepney subsequently voyaged to Virginia and were in fact the same persons as Richard and Isabella Pace of Jamestown. However, no proof of this has emerged.

  1. ^ St. Dunstan's Parish Register of Marriages, Oct 1568 – Jan 1610, London Metropolitan Archives. Note that the phrase "of Wapping Wall" only shows that the couple were living there at the time of the marriage.