John Smith was born circa 1579-1580, his baptism being recorded on January 9, 1580 at Saint Helena's Church in Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England, to yeoman farmer George and Alice Smith. In 1596, Smith sailed to France and joined English soldiers fighting the Spanish and over the next ten years earned a reputation for his military strength, eventually attaining the rank of Captain. In December 1606, Captain Smith was chosen to accompany the newly formed Virginia Company across the sea to establish an English colony in Virginia. Named Jamestown in honor of King James I, the colony was formally established on May 13, 1607. The first months in Jamestown were difficult and in the fall of 1607, Captain Smith led expeditions to the nearby Powhatan villages in search of food. It was during one of these expeditions that Captain Smith was captured by a hunting party and eventually brought before Wahunsenacawh, the paramount chief of the Powhatan, and released, leading to the largely fabricated folk legend of his encounter with Wahunsenacawh's daughter Pocahontas.

From June – September 1608, Captain Smith and a group of other colonists set out to explore and document the 2,500 miles of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, including the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, leading to Smith's creation of the most accurate map of the area at this time, including the location of Native American villages. Upon his return to Jamestown in September 1608, Captain Smith was elected president of the colony and head of the council. However, in the fall of 1609 a severe injury from a gunpowder explosion forced his return to England. Captain Smith would continue his exploration of the shores of northern Virginia and in his later years wrote extensively about his life and experiences as a soldier and colonist. He passed away on June 21, 1631 at the age of 51 and his buried at London's Holy Sepulchre Church (formally known as Saint Sepulchre-without-Newgate).