Sir Humphrey Gilbert (ca. 1537-1583), English soldier and colonizer, failed in his attempt to settle Newfoundland. Nevertheless he took the first step toward building a British colonial empire in America.

Humphrey Gilbert was born at Greenway, Devonshire. His family was well-to-do, but as a younger son he inherited only enough to pay for his education. He entered the service of Elizabeth before she became queen, and her friendship endured until his death.

Gilbert accompanied the Earl of Warwick's expedition to France in 1562 to aid the Huguenots, then hard pressed by their own government. It is supposed that Gilbert's interest in America dated from this experience and that he here met André Thevet, the French geographer who had visited the New World and written two books about Brazil.

By 1565 Gilbert had become interested in a northern route to the Pacific. He petitioned the Queen for permission to discover...