Robert Hayman (14 August 1575 – November 1629) was a poet, colonist and Proprietary Governor of Bristol's Hope colony in Newfoundland.
Hayman was appointed the colony's first and only governor in 1618 when Bristol's Society of Merchant Venturers received a charter from King James I of England to establish the settlement. Hayman's brother in law, John Barker was the society's master. Hayman lived in the colony for fifteen months before returning to England and visited again over several summers until his tenure as governor ended in 1628. Much of his work was in England raising money for the settlement and encouraging more colonisation efforts.
As Newfoundland's first poet Hayman is remembered for his writings extolling the island and its early English pioneers.
In the fall of 1628 Hayman left for the Amazon dying, a year later, of fever in Guyana.
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