"[5] Gans figured in the English state papers of the reign of Elizabeth I which include a full description of his operations written by a colleague George Nedham.
[3] Gans became the first Bohemian and the first recorded Jew in colonial America when, in 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh recruited him for an expedition to found a permanent settlement in the Virginia territory of the New World.
Among the ruins at the Roanoke site, archaeologists have discovered lumps of smelted copper and a goldsmith's crucible attributed to Gans's work at the colony.
[1] Because the royal mining company failed to resupply colonists who were also becoming increasingly fearful of conflicts with the Native Americans, they accepted an offer from Sir Francis Drake in June 1586 to sail them to England.
Gans moved to the town of Bristol where he gave Hebrew lessons to English gentlemen who wanted to read the Bible in its original tongue.