The establishment of the Roanoke Colony () was an attempt by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The English, led by Humphrey Gilbert, had claimed St. John's, Newfoundland in 1583 as the first North American English territory at the royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I. The first Roanoke colony was founded by governor Ralph Lane in 1585 on Roanoke Island in what is now Dare County, North Carolina, United States. Following the failure of the 1585 settlement, a second colony—led by John White—landed on the same island in 1587, and set up another settlement that became known as the Lost Colony due to the subsequent unexplained disappearance of its population.