Gosnold, Bartholomew (?–1607), an English explorer and American colonist. In 1602 he explored the New England coast from Maine to Narragansett Bay, and gave Cape Cod its name. Gosnold was second in command on the voyage that brought colonists to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, where they established the first permanent English settlement in America. He died of malaria later in the year.