Nathaniel Butler

Who is Nathaniel Butler?

Nathaniel Butler was an English privateer who later served as the colonial governor of Bermuda during the early 17th century. He had built many structures still seen in Bermuda today including many of the island's coastal fortresses and the State House, in St. George's, the oldest surviving English settlement in the New World. He also has the distinction of introducing the potato, the first seen in North America, to the early English colonists of Jamestown, Virginia.

First serving in the service of the Earl of Warwick during his early sailing career, he was later appointed as governor of Bermuda, then administered by the Somers Isles Company, a post which he served from 1619 to 1622. During this time, he salvaged guns from a shipwrecked vessel and used them to arm the island forts then under construction including Southampton Fort and those of Smith's and Paget Island in 1620. While Governor of Bermuda, he played an indirect role in the development of the Bermuda rig, when he employed a shipwrecked Dutch boat-builder. He would also be the first to introduce the potato to North America when, in 1621, he had a cargo of potatoes shipped to Governor Francis Wyatt of Jamestown. He was the third governor of Bermuda.