Virginia Dare (born 1587), first child born of English parents in America. In 1587 the English soldier and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh sent a group of colonists under John White to establish a settlement in North America to be known as Virginia, after Queen Elizabeth I, who was called the Virgin Queen. About a month after the colonists settled on Roanoke Island, off present-day North Carolina, a child was born on August 18 to Ananias Dare, a member of Governor White's staff, and his wife Ellinor, the governor's daughter. The infant was named Virginia, after the colony. Nine days later White sailed for England. A war between Spain and England delayed communications with Roanoke until 1590, and no trace of the inhabitants of the colony was ever found.