{{Short description|Marks the establishment of a European colony in the New World}} {{Multiple issues|{{Lead too short|date=October 2022}} {{Refimprove|date=May 2025}}}} {{Use dmy dates |date=February 2025}} The birth of the '''first white child''' is a concept that marks the establishment of a European colony in the New World.{{clarify|date=August 2025}}
==Americas==
=== Vinland === Snorri Thorfinnsson is the first person of European descent believed to have been born in the Americas apart from Greenland. The site of his birth is not known, but scholars believe it may have been at any of Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, the Long Island Sound, the Bay of Fundy, or L’Anse aux Meadows.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-vikings-a-memorable-visit-to-america-98090935/|title=The Vikings: A Memorable Visit to America|last=Linden|first=Eugene|magazine=Smithsonian Magazine|date=December 2004|access-date=22 April 2023}}</ref>
===Canada=== Jonathan Guy, the son of Newfoundland settler Nicholas Guy, was the first child born to English parents in Canada, and one of the first born in any part of North America within a permanent settlement. He was born on 27 March 1613 in Cuper's Cove, a settlement that has been continuously occupied since 1610 and where his family remained long after his birth.<ref name="DCBO2">{{cite DCB |last=Cell |first=Gillian T. |title=Guy, Nicholas |volume=1 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/guy_nicholas_1E.html}}</ref> Some accounts of the legendary Sheila NaGeira place her firstborn at Carbonear in the 16th century.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Philip |last=Hiscock |journal=Newfoundland Studies |volume=18 |number=2 |date=Fall 2002 |title=A Perfect Princess: The Twentieth-Century Legend of Sheila NaGeira and Gilbert Pike |url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/nflds/article/view/880/1233 |pages=195–244 |access-date=19 January 2019}}</ref>
Hélène Desportes is often cited as the first white child born in New France. She was probably born in 1620, to Pierre Desportes and Françoise Langlois, although there is some disagreement about whether she had actually been born in France before her family's arrival in the colony in 1614. Hélène's first cousin Eustache Martin was born in October 1621 in Quebec to Abraham Martin and Marguerite Langlois.<ref name="DCBO">{{cite DCB |last=Bennett |first=Ethel M. G. |title=Desportes, Hélène (Hébert; Morin) |volume=1 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/desportes_helene_1E.html}}</ref> [[File:Virginia Dare 5c 1937 issue.JPG|thumb|right|A 1937 United States stamp honoring Virginia Dare]]
At Port Royal, Acadia, in 1636, Pierre Martin and Catherine Vigneau, who had arrived on the passenger ship Saint Jehan along with 78 other migrants, were the first European parents to have a child in Acadia. The first-born child was Mathieu Martin. In part because of this distinction, Mathieu Martin later became the Seigneur of Cobequid (1699).<ref>{{cite book|last=Griffiths|first=N. E. S.|author-link=Naomi E. S. Griffiths|editor1=Phillip Buckner|editor2=John G. Reid|title=The Atlantic Region to Confederation: A History|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P2spDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40|year=1994|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1-4875-1676-5|pages=40–60|chapter=1600–1650: Fish, Fur and Folk|jstor=10.3138/j.ctt15jjfrm.9}}</ref>
===Mexico===
The first white child in modern Mexico was likely born in the 1520s.{{cn|date=March 2023}}
Earlier, Gonzalo Guerrero, a sailor from Palos, Spain, is presumed to have reached the New World aboard a Spanish expedition in the late 15th or early 16th century, which was shipwrecked along the Yucatán Peninsula. Around 1511, Guerrero became a war chief for Nachan Kaan, Lord of Chektumal, and married a rich Maya woman, with whom he fathered the first half-European children of Mexico. Guerrero and his wife's three children are widely deemed the first mestizos of the New World.{{sfn|González Hernández|2018|loc=para. 6}}{{sfn|Calder|2017|pp=20–21}}{{efn|By the first quarter of 1519, of the ten sailors who had landed in Yucatan ''and'' had not been ritually sacrificed in 1511, only Guerrero and Aguilar are thought to have remained alive ({{harvnb|Chamberlain|1948|p=15}}, {{harvnb|González Hernández|2018|loc=para. 4}}).}}
===United States===
==== English descent ==== Virginia Dare, born in 1587 at the Roanoke Colony, was the first child born in North America to English parents, and her memory was celebrated in the British colonies. Virginia Laydon ({{born in|1609}}) was the first child in Jamestown, Virginia colony. Peregrine White, born aboard the ''Mayflower'' at Provincetown Harbor in 1620, was the first Pilgrim birth.<ref name="WordRon">Word, Ron. July 30, 2007. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070808174537/https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20070730/ap_tr_ge/travel_trip_st__augustine St. Augustine celebrates 442nd birthday]". Accessed August 7, 2007.</ref>
The first English-descended child born in Spanish Texas was Helena Dill Berryman, born in 1804 in what is now Nacogdoches County.<ref name="Cox">Cox, Mike. July 2003. "[http://www.texasescapes.com/MikeCoxTexasTales/144FirstWhitesTexas.htm First Whites]".</ref>
==== Dutch and Spanish descent ==== Martín de Argüelles Jr., born in the Spanish colony of St. Augustine, Spanish Florida, was the first child of European descent known to be born in what is now the continental United States.<ref name="Time">''Time''. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20071107035413/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795469,00.html First Native White]". Accessed August 7, 2007.</ref> Born in 1566, his father was a ''hidalgo'' and one of the expeditioners who went to New Spain (modern Mexico) with Captain General Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565. St. Augustine, Florida, is also the oldest continuously occupied European-founded city anywhere in the United States excluding Puerto Rico.<ref name="WordRon" />
Sarah Rapelje, born on June 6, 1625 in Fort Orange (modern Albany) to parents born in the Dutch Republic, was the first white child born in New Netherland.<ref name="ColAnc">Colonial Ancestors. "{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070813191657/http://colonialancestors.com/yearbook/june.htm This Day in Colonial Times – June]}}". Accessed August 9, 2007.</ref><ref name="Decoursey">Decoursey, William. "[http://www.teachout.org/du/decoursey.html Bill Decoursey's notes on old Dutch families] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927223029/http://www.teachout.org/du/decoursey.html |date=2007-09-27 }}". Accessed August 9, 2007.</ref>
=== Brazil === [[File:Detalhe_da_gravura_Cerco_a_Igarassu,_de_Theodor_de_Bry_-_Olinda_(1549).jpg|thumb|The former Castle of Duarte Coelho, built in 1536 in Olinda, was the first strong-house in Brazil. By Theodor de Bry.]] The brothers Duarte Coelho de Albuquerque and Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho, born in Olinda, in the then Captaincy of Pernambuco, in 1537 and 1539, sons of the donatary captain, Duarte Coelho, and his wife Brites de Albuquerque, are considered the first white children from Brazil. Even though the discovery of Brazil took place in 1500, the arrival of European women had not yet occurred, and until then Brazil was occupied by white male sailors on ships, who had relationships with indigenous women, such as Caramuru and João Ramalho, who had the possible first mestizos in Brazil in the 1510s.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
== Oceania ==
=== Australia and New Zealand === {{see also|First white child in Australia}} Seebaer van Nieuwelant (born 27 July 1623), son of Willemtgen and Willem Janszoon, was born south of Dirk Hartog Island, in present-day Western Australia. His father, not to be confused with the earlier Dutch explorer of the same name, was a midshipman from Amsterdam. He and his wife were aboard the ''Leijden'', commanded by Claes Hermanszoon, which was charting the coast at the time. Their son's name in Dutch meant "sea-born of new land".{{efn |From the journal of the ''Leijden'' (or ''Leyden''): "On the 27th do. WILLEMTGEN JANSZ., wedded wife Of WILLEM JANSZ. of Amsterdam, midshipman, was delivered of a son, who got the name of SEEBAER VAN NIEUWELANT."}}{{sfn |Heeres |2006 |p=49 }}
The first European birth in New Zealand was Thomas Holloway King at the Rangihoua Bay settlement on 21 February 1815.<ref name="HFSI">[http://www.the1814hansenfamilysocietyinc.org/firstgenerations.html 1814 Hansen family tree] Accessed November 1, 2013.</ref><ref name="ACTK">[https://records.ancestry.com/Thomas_Holloway_King_records.ashx?pid=164479256 Ancestry.com record for Thomas King] Accessed November 1, 2013.</ref>
=== Polynesia === The first child born to European parents in Fiji was Augusta Cameron, born 5 December 1835.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knapman |first1=Claudia |title=White Women in Fiji, 1835–1930: The Ruin of Empire? |date=1 June 2014 |publisher=University of Queensland Press |isbn=978-1921902383 |page=36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iu8XBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT36 |access-date=7 February 2020}}</ref>
The first white child in the Hawaiian Islands was Levi Sartwell Loomis who was born on 16 July 1820 in a grass hut in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. his parents were Elisha and Mary Sartwell Loomis who were part of the first company of American missionaries which arrived on March 30, 1820, on the ''Thaddeus'' from Boston.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stanton |first1=Joseph |title=A Hawai'i Anthology: A Collection of Works by Recipients of the Hawai'i Award for Literature, 1974-1996 |date=1997 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |location=Honolulu |isbn=978-0-8248-1977-4|oclc=37888807 |page=142 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GBTXlAtNqXgC |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Day|first=Arthur Grove|author-link=A. Grove Day|title=History Makers of Hawaii: a Biographical Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkp0AAAAMAAJ|year=1984|publisher=Mutual Publishing of Honolulu|location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-935180-09-1|oclc=11087565|page=147}}</ref> On November 9, 1820, Sophia Moseley Bingham, Hawaii's first female white child, was born in Honolulu to American missionaries Hiram and Sybil Moseley Bingham.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Andrews |first1=Mrs Robert W. |title=The Story of the Three Old Buildings in Honolulu which Originally Housed the First Christian Mission to the Sandwich Islands |year=1926 |publisher=Hawaiian Mission Children's Society |page=4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y9lMAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref>
==Africa==
===Rhodesia===
Nada Burnham (1894–1896), daughter of the celebrated American scout Frederick Russell Burnham, was the first white child born in Bulawayo and died of fever and starvation during the Siege of Bulawayo in the Second Matabele War.<ref name="jameswest">{{cite book |last=West |first=James E. |author-link=James E. West (Scouting) |author2=Peter O. Lamb |others=illustrated by Robert Baden-Powell |title=He-who-sees-in-the-dark; the boys' story of Frederick Burnham, the American scout |publisher=Brewer, Warren and Putnam |year=1932}}</ref><ref name="scouting">{{cite book |last=Burnham |first=Frederick Russell |author-link=Frederick Russell Burnham |title=Scouting on Two Continents |publisher=Doubleday, Page & company |year=1926 |oclc=407686}}</ref> She was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia.<ref name="rhodesianamar77">{{cite journal |last=Lott |first=J. "Jack" P. |date=March 1977 |title=Major F. R. Burnham, D.S.O. |journal=Rhodesiana Magazine |volume=36 |issn=0556-9605}}</ref>
=== South Africa === Bernert Willemsz Wijlant (born 6 June 1652), the son of Barenz Wijlant, was the first white child born in the Cape Colony (modern South Africa).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bernert Willemsz Wijlant, the first White baby, is born at the Cape {{!}} South African History Online |url=https://sahistory.org.za/dated-event/bernert-willemsz-wijlant-first-white-baby-born-cape-0 |access-date=2026-05-02 |website=sahistory.org.za |language=en}}</ref>
== Political symbolism == The ''Washington Post'' noted in 2018 that the birth of Virginia Dare is a celebrated symbol among far-right and white nationalist currents.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lawler |first=Andrew |date=2018-05-24 |title=Perspective {{!}} How a child born more than 400 years ago became a symbol of white nationalism |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/05/24/how-a-child-born-more-than-400-years-ago-became-a-symbol-of-white-nationalism/ |access-date=2026-05-02 |work=The Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> VDARE, an alt-right website associated with white nationalism, is named in her honor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Del. Sen. candidate Witzke retweets support from group with ‘white nationalist’ ties |url=https://whyy.org/articles/del-senate-candidate-witzke-retweets-support-from-group-with-white-nationalist-ties/ |access-date=2026-05-02 |website=WHYY |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Notes== {{Notelist}} {{Reflist |group=note}}
==References== {{Reflist |30em}}
==Sources== {{Refbegin |30em |indent=yes}} *{{cite book |last=Calder |first=Robert |date=2017 |title=A hero for the Americas : the legend of Gonzalo Guerrero |place=Regina, Saskatchewan |publisher=University of Regina Press |isbn=9780889775091 |oclc=978286075}} *{{cite book |last=Chamberlain |first=Robert Stoner |title=The conquest and colonization of Yucatan, 1517-1550 |date=1948 |place=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Carnegie Institution of Washington |series=Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 582 |hdl=2027/txu.059173008409431}} *{{cite web |last=González Hernández |first=Cristina |date=2018 |url=https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/85636/gonzalo-guerrero |title=Gonzalo Guerrero |website=Diccionario Biográfico electrónico |publisher=Real Academia de la Historia |access-date=4 October 2022 |archive-date=24 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324101520/https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/85636/gonzalo-guerrero |url-status=live }} *{{cite Q |Q132175190 |mode=cs1 |last=Heeres |first=Jan Ernst |orig-year=1899 |editor-first=Colin |editor-last=Choat |access-date=2025-04-19 }}{{sfn whitelist |CITEREFHeeres2006}} {{Refend}}
==Further reading== {{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} * Mollie, Gillen. 1989. ''A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet.'' {{ISBN|0-908120-69-9}} {{Refend}}
{{White people}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:First White Child}} Category:European colonization of the Americas Category:History of immigration to Australia Category:White Americans Category:First things Category:Historiography of the United States