This article uses previously uncited archival material to demonstrate conclusively the role played by Sir Thomas Warner in the foundation of English colonies in the Caribbean. In particular, it disproves the previously entrenched view that Thomas Warner, known as 'Indian Warner', who was at first loyal to, and subsequently rebelled against English authority, in league with the French, was Sir Thomas's illegitimate son by an indigenous woman. It traces the relationships between Europeans and indigenous communities in the region to explain how the Kalinago came to be concentrated in Dominica and St Vincent.