(1560?-1617)

Christopher Newport was an English sea captain best known for commanding the three ships, the Susan Constant, the Discovery, and the Godspeed, that constituted the first permanent English settlement in North America. (That's right, the Pilgrims were not the first!) The settlement, established in June, 1607, was located at the western end of the Virginia Peninsula. Yes, this is the Jamestown of Pocahontas fame. No, there aren't any mountains there.

Newport sailed back and forth between England and the struggling Jamestown every few years, landing on the eastern tip of the Peninsula at a place that came to be known as Newport's News, now Newport News.

Christopher Newport University is named after him.