Sir Walter Raleigh--His Birth and Parentage--Student at Oxford--Enlists in Service of Queen of Navarre--His stay in France--Returns to England--At the Middle Temple--Serves in Netherlands and Ireland--Returns to England--His Gallantry-- Undertakes Colonization of Virginia--Member of Parliament-- Knighted--In Portuguese Expedition--Loses Favor at Court-- Retires to Ireland--Spenser--Sir Walter in the Tower--His Flattery of the Queen--She grants him the Manor of Sherborne-- His Expedition to Guiana--Joins Expedition against Cadiz-- Wounded--Makes another Voyage to Guiana--Restored to Queen's Favor--Contributes to Defeat of Treason of Essex--Raleigh made Governor of Jersey--His Liberal Sentiments--Elizabeth's Death-- Accession of James the First--Raleigh confined in the Tower-- Found guilty of High Treason--Reprieved--Still a Prisoner in the Tower--Devotes himself to Study--His Companions--His "History of the World"--Lady Raleigh's Petition--Raleigh Released--His Last Expedition to Guiana--Its Failure--His Son killed--Sir Walter's Return to England--His Arrest, Condemnation, Execution, Character. DURING the same year, 1618, died the founder of Virginia colonization, the famous Sir Walter Raleigh. He was born at Hayes, a farm in the Parish of Budley, Devonshire, 1552, being the fourth son of Walter Raleigh, Esq., of Fardel, near Plymouth, and Catharine, daughter of Sir Philip Champernon, and widow of Otho Gilbert, of Compton, Devonshire. After passing some time at Oriel College, Oxford, about the year 1568, where he distinguished himself by his genius and attainments, at the age of seventeen he joined a volunteer company of gentlemen, under Henry Champernon, in an expedition to assist the Protestant Queen of Navarre. He remained in France five years, and while in Paris, under the protection of the English embassy, he witnessed the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day. On returning to England he was for a while in the Middle Temple; but whether as a student is uncertain. His leisure hours were devoted to poetry. In the year 1578 he accompanied Sir John Norris to the Netherlands. In the following year he joined in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's first and unsuccessful voyage. Now, when at the age of twenty-seven, it is said that of the twenty-four hours he allotted four to study and only five to sleep; but this is rather improbable, for so much activity of employment as always characterized him, demanded a proportionate degree of repose. In 1580 he served in Ireland as captain of horse, under Lord Grey, and became familiar with the dangers and atrocities of civil war. In 1581, the following year, he became acquainted with the poet Spenser, then resident at Kilcolman. Disgusted with a painful service, Raleigh returned to England during this year, and it was at this period that he exhibited a famous piece of gallantry to the queen.