That's a great question. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly who they really were in any detail but we've made some really well researched guesses. For those unfamiliar with the Roanoke Colony, I suggest starting with [this] (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/n2n4yr/comment/gwkh4w8) earlier post of mine about the famed "lost" colony, how it came to be, and what happened to the colonists left there. I guess we can say this post is...

The Roanoke Mystery, Chapter II: Who were the "Lost" Colonists of Roanoke and why did they choose to go?

For the 1587 civilian populated colony envisioned by Sir Walter Raleigh, intended to be settled on the rich lands near the deep waters of Chesapeake Bay, the recently knighted Raleigh (and co) started with a plan to recruit some 210 willing settlers according to one surviving document from one of those men engaged in the endeavor. The investors and promoters ultimately had just over half that many agree and sail towards the unknown horizon to the west. Who were these colonists hoping to found the Cittie of Raleigh? Their names were:

John White, Governor (returned to England)

Roger Bailie, Assistant

Ananias Dare, Assistant

Christopher Cooper, Assistant

Thomas Stevens, Assistant

John Sampson, Assistant

Dyonis Harvie, Assistant

Roger Prat, Assistant

George Howe, Assistant (killed while crabbing alone by the Secotan People as a result of the hostilities created with them by Lane, namely the beheading of Chief Wingina)

Men: Nicholas Johnson, Thomas Warner, Anthony Cage, John Jones, John Tydway, Ambrose Viccars, Edmond English, Thomas Topan, Henry Berrye, Richard Berrye, John Spendlove, John Hemmington, Thomas Butler, Edward Powell, John Burden, James Hynde, Thomas Ellis, William Browne, Michael Myllet, Thomas Smith, Richard Kemme, Thomas Harris, Richard Taverner, John Earnest, Henry Johnson, John Starte, Richard Darige, William Lucas, Arnold, Archard, John Wright, William Dutton, Morris Allen, William Waters, Richard Arthur, John Chapman, William Clement, Robert Little, Hugh Tayler, Richard Wildye, Lewes Wotton, Michael Bishop, Henry Browne, Henry Rufoote, Richard Tomkins, Henry Dorrell, charles Florrie, Henry Mylton, Henry Payne, Thomas Harris, William Nicholes, Thomas Phevens, John Borden, Thomas Scot, William Willes, John Brooke, Cutbert White, John Bright, Clement Tayler, William Sole, John Cotsmur, Humfrey Newton, Thomas Colman, Thomas Gramme, Marke Bennet, John Gibbes, John Stilman, Robert Wilkinson, Peter Little, John Wyles, Brian Wyles, George Martyn, Hugh Pattenson, Martyn Sutton, John Farre, John Bridger, Griffen Jones, Richard Shaberdge, James Lasie, John Cheven, Thomas Hewet, William Berde

Women: Elyoner Dare, Margery Harvie, Agnes Wood, Wenefrid Powell, Joyce Archard, Jane Jones, Elizabaeth Glane, Jane Pierce, Audry Tappan, Alis, Chapman, Emme Merrimoth, (unknown) Colman, Margaret Lawrence, Joan Warren, Jane Mannering, Rose Payne, Elizabeth Viccars

Children: John Sampson, Robert Ellis, Ambrose Viccars, Thamas Archard, Thomas Humfrey, Thomas Smart, George Howe, John Prat, William Wythers

Born in August of 1587 on Roanoke Island: Virginia Dare, (Unknown) "Harvye" (Harvie)

Some of the colonists were small families that joined in the attempt - Ananias and Elynor Dare, for example, were married. She gave birth to their daughter Virginia on 18 Aug 1587, shortly after arriving in the land of Virginia. Gov. John White was Elynor's father. Dyonis and Margery Harvie likewise saw the birth of their child only days after the birth of Virginia, both Elynor and Margery taking the voyage as pregnant women and presumably entering into the third trimester as they departed England 8 May 1587. The family of Ambrose and Elizabeth Viccars and their son, also named Ambrose, went as well. Thomas Coleman and his wife, whose name we do not know but was likely Joan, stepped onto the boat in search of a new opportunity as well. George Howe - the man killed while crabbing - was the father of the young boy by the same name. At least one child was so young they were still breast feeding when they arrived on the west side of the Atlantic, in "Julie" (July). Most of the colonists, however, were single men or women. The surviving lists tell us names but not much about who they really were or what they did.

One primary promoter and investor in this (and most of the other) early Anglo colonization attempt(s) in N America was a man named Richard Hakluyt. He published a few works in favor, one specifically relevant here being his Discourse on Western Planting, in which he at length expressed his ideas on how to establish colonies and why they should. He wrote quite a bit about this topic and his "list" of recommended trades to recruit for success includes (I've modernized his text mainly for spelling and greatly condensed it to form into a list):

Millwrights, Sawyers and carpenters for buildings, blacksmiths, salt makers, brick and tile makers and layers, lime makers, thatchers, barbers (meaning surgeons), tailors, cooks, brewers, butchers, shoemakers, tanners, skinners and dyers, fowlers and sea fishers and freshwater fishers (salt and fresh water fishermen, respectively), sugar cane, vinegar and olive planters, hunters skillful to kill wild beasts for "vittell," warrners to breed rabits and kill vermin, mynerall men (mineral men - either miners or minerologists, were not entirely certain what he meant), sinkers of wells and finders of springs, men expert in the art of fortification, captains of long and great experience, and soldiers well trained in Flanders to join with the younger (meaning experienced soldiers from wars in France in addition to fresh recruits), burners of ashes for the trade of soap ashes (potash), joiners to cut boards for shipping chests, tallow chandlers, shipwrights "in some number" and oar makers and makers of cable and cordage.

For most of the names we just don't know who they were or what their specific trade was. It's believed a lime maker was included based on burned shells found in large quantities on Roanoke, an indication of the process used at the time. It's likely as many as 25 of the men, between one fifth to a quarter of the colonists, would have been a crew of experienced seamen recommended by Hakluyt to man their pinasse (or pinnace, a small boat). The rest would almost certainly be from a scattering of Hakluyt's list of trades. Gov. White was actually an artist in watercolors and had joined the painter's guild in London in 1780. His artwork of Native villages and Native Americans, as well as plants and animals, done mainly on the early Raliegh expedition of 1584 (where Amadas and Barlowe first "found" Roanoke) is worth a great deal today and, interestingly, was found in Thomas Payne's papers in London in the 1770's. It's so priceless that the collection is now held by the British Museum, and [his work] (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG50964) is available online as a result (by clicking on the "related items" tab - worth the click!). His son in law, Ananias Dare, was a brick and tile layer. These people that uprooted their families were not the "criminals", vagrants, poor beggars, or even sturdy beggars that would later willingly volunteer for an indenture contract and flood to the British colonies by the thousands with hope and despair in their eyes but instead were mainly of the "middling sort", being what we today would term as lower middle class. They had a trade or valuable skill set and were readily employable, and many likely even had their own shops in rented buildings, living in them with their family as well. They likely didnt own any lands, which was becoming nearly impossible in 16th century England for any common people to achieve, but they weren't starving, either. The resulting impacts of the land enclosure policies had pushed numerous squatters, tenet or squatting subsistence farmers, and loads of the working poor to city centers which complicates tracking where they came from by things like surname. The policy also took available food off the table by removing access to forests. It removed firewood from the reach of citizens. It just made life a lot harder for the common person in the short term (but allowed an agrictural boom for England as a whole in the longterm). So why would these folks leave?

Cont'd