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Richard Buck was born in the county of Norfolk, north-east of London, in 1582. He graduated from Oxford University and became a minister in the Anglican Church. He married and had two babies when he was recruited by the Virginia Company after the Jamestown colony's first pastor died in the colony's first winter of 1608. Reverend Buck, his wife and two baby daughters, sailed for Jamestown in 1609 with the colony's new governor, Sir Thomas Gates aboard the Sea Venture. The Sea Venture was wrecked in a storm at Bermuda and the passengers and crew did not arrive at Jamestown until May 23, 1610, nine months after the other ships of the Third Supply mission. When Gates and the other colonists from the Sea Venture arrived at Jamestown, they found only 60 of the 500 colonists alive after the harsh winter of 1609-1610 later known as the "Starving Time."
Rev. Buck soon won the respect and trust of his Virginia flock and settled into his religious duties that included leading prayers twice a day and preaching on Thursday and Sunday. He also officiated at religious and public events, including opening the first session of the Virginia General Assembly, made up of the House of Burgesses and the Virginia Governor's Council. This assembly met in the church at Jamestown on July 30, 1619, as the first elected assembly and law making body in colonial America. Rev. Buck also presided over the wedding of John Rolfe and Pocahontas. He was a minister to the needs of the inhabitants of Jamestown from 1610 to 1624.
Rev. Buck was an ancient planter. On a landowners list sent to England in 1625, he was given credit for 750 acres, planted, by patent, in the Corporaton of james City.
Like so many of the early Virginia colonists, Rev. Buck fell ill and died in 1624 in Jamestown.
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1582 - 1624 (42 years)