Richard Pace (planter)

Richard Pace was an early settler and ancient planter in colonial Jamestown, Virginia. According to a 1622 account published by the London Company, Pace played a key role in warning the Jamestown colony of an impending Powhatan raid on the settlement.

Richard and Isabella Pace are from Stepney Parish in London. They married in St. Dunstan's Parish Church in October 1608: "Richard Pace of Wapping Wall Carpenter and Isabell Smyth of the same marryed the 5th day October 1608." St Dunstan's has historic links with the sea and with seafarers, and was until recently the "Church of the High Seas", where births, deaths, and marriages at sea were registered. In the 17th century, when Richard Pace and Isabell Smyth married there, the parish included Wapping, a waterfront area occupied by mariners, boatbuilders, merchants, victuallers, and others concerned with London's burgeoning maritime ventures. These associations, taken together with the names, make it plausible that the couple who married in Stepney subsequently voyaged to Virginia and were in fact the same persons as Richard and Isabella Pace of Jamestown. However, no proof of this has emerged.