Capt. John Woodliffe

Captain John Woodliffe, from Prestwood, England, was at Jamestown in 1608 and became the first governor of Berkeley Hundred Plantation in 1619. On December 4, 1619, Captain John Woodliffe and 38 settlers arrived there in the ship Margaret. A Thanksgiving service held there by Captain Woodliffe and these settlers was regarded as the first official Thanksgiving Day service in America, in keeping with the proclamation that the day of the ship's arrival at the place assigned for the plantation in Virginia should be kept yearly and perpetually holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.

Virginia · United States