location of Roanoke Colony on White-De Bry Map of Virginia,
from Thomas Hariot's A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia (1590)
(note that "west" rather than "north" is at the top of the map) Source: Library of Congress
Within the current boundaries of the state, Virginia Laydon was the first English child born in Virginia. She was the daughter of John Laydon and Anne Burras. Anne Burras was the maidservant to Mistress Forrest, and together they were the first two women to arrive at Jamestown. Anne Burras married John Leyden in December, 1608, shortly after her arrival.
No women were included in the first expedition sent by the Virginia (London) Company to establish Jamestown in 1607. Men were perceived as the most capable colonists - they could explore, seeking mines or new pathways to China. Women were not recognized as essential members of the colony until late in the company's management of Virginia. Only a few other women arrived before 1619, when the Virginia Company consciously sought to make Virginia a more attractive colony for long-term settlement by sending prospective wives to Jamestown.
Only a few English colonists married Native Americans, most notable John Rolfe marrying Pocahontas in 1614. While sexual relations between the colonists and the Algonquians may have occurred often, and the English permitted the Indians to enter the colonial houses freely until the uprising in 1622, formal acceptance of Native Americans into colonial Virginia society was extremely rare. A "population pyramid" displaying age and gender for the early colony would not resemble the culture in England - why may explain why so many colonists returned to England, as soon as they had a chance.
The gender imbalance of the colony is a clue that the Virginia Company owners did not intend to establish an agricultural community, and did not respond quickly to the realization that tobacco could be the "gold" of Virginia. Failure to establish a society that could make a profit, or even defend the colony, cost the company its charter just five years after the first large shipment of women. In contrast, the second attempt to settle at Roanoke Island in 1587 included a gender-balanced community. According to the National Park Service:1
If you find a pre-1970's textbook on Virginia history, see if it refers to Virginia Dare as the "first child" born in the New World. If so, be aware that such an English-centric perspective completely ignores the fact that Native American children had been born for 10-15,000 years in the New World. A narrower claim that "Virginia Dare was the first European child born in the New World" still assumes the Spanish settlements, and the French settlements north of Florida, had no children. (Martín de Arguelles Jr., born in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1566, was 21 years old before Virginia Dare arrived at Roanoke Island. By that time, many generations of Viking children could have been born much farther north...)
Even the claim that Virginia Dare was the first English child assumes no English sailor ever went onshore and fathered a child with a Native American before the colonists arrived. English sailors in the region before 1587 were rare and maybe no one had a chance to father a child... but do you think all those Spanish sailors who passed along the Atlantic coastline were celibate?
The settlement of Virginia by the English is often presented as a conquest tale, a story of righteous and modern European colonists replacing technologically-backward, morally-challenged occupants who lacked official right to the land. Claims regarding the "first child born in Virginia" and the "First Families of Virginia" often fail to consider the Native Americans, or the Spanish and other nationalities who set foot on "Virginia" long before Jamestown was built starting in 1607.