Virginia Dare and The White Doe: The Story and What Is True

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Virginia Dare and the White Doe is a story told about Roanoke Island (Manteo area), Dare County. Vote believe it or no way, then see what 3 named sources say is documented.

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Oct 27Checked, 2026

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Local legend. Not confirmed. Just for fun.

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Virginia Dare and The White Doe

People say Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas, was not lost with the colony but grew up among the Native people of the coast. In the tale, a jealous sorcerer turned her into a white doe, and a hunter's arrow ended her life. Some say a ghostly white deer still shows up on Roanoke Island.

What The Sources Document

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources post "Virginia Dare, First English Child in the New World" (August 18, 2016) documents that she was born on August 18, 1587 on Roanoke Island to Eleanor and Ananias Dare, that her grandfather John White recorded her birth, and that she disappears from the record after White's return three years later. The same post says North Carolina issued her a delayed birth certificate in 1937, partly to promote the outdoor drama The Lost Colony, and it presents the white deer story as legend, not fact. NCpedia's "White Doe, Legend of" by Daniel W. Barefoot (2006, revised July 2023) treats the doe story as folklore drawn from collections of ghost stories and legends, not from historical records; the transformation, the magic arrows and the later sightings are legend. Details vary between tellings (the names of the girl and the suitors differ in the sources we read). We could not read a page on who first wrote the story down, so we do not date or credit its origin. According to the DNCR post "North Carolina's Most Haunted" (October 30, 2018), some retellings say her ghost still appears at Roanoke; that is a claim about stories, not something any source documents.

Sources: Virginia Dare, First English Child in the New World (NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources blog, August 18, 2016); White Doe, Legend of, by Daniel W. Barefoot, revised by the Government & Heritage Library (NCpedia); North Carolina's Most Haunted (NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources blog, October 30, 2018).

A Note

Virginia Dare's birth is documented; the white doe is folklore. The sorcerer in the tale is a character in the story and is not tied to any real person or Tribe. The ghost lines are given only as the state's own blog reports them.

Its home: Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. Official page.

On this site: Outer Banks.

Looked for and Not Found

We found no claim for this story that we could not trace to a named source.

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Where do these facts come from?

From the named sources listed on this page: Virginia Dare, First English Child in the New World (NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources blog, August 18, 2016); White Doe, Legend of, by Daniel W. Barefoot, revised by the Government & Heritage Library (NCpedia); North Carolina's Most Haunted (NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources blog, October 30, 2018).

Sources

Read on October 27, 2026. Stories are for fun; the facts come from these sources. How we check: editorial standards; spot a mistake? tell us.

Cite this page: It's North Carolina, “Virginia Dare and The White Doe”, itsnorthcarolina.com/legends/virginia-dare-white-doe/ (updated 2026-10-27). By the It's North Carolina editorial team. Free to quote with attribution and a link to this page; data and tables are licensed CC BY 4.0.