I use the On This Day website for inspiration more than fact. It says that on 3rd December 1586 Sir Thomas Herriot introduced potatoes to England from Colombia. I can’t find a Sir Thomas Herriot, but there was a Sir Thomas Harriot. Harriot became a close associate of Sir Walter Raleigh. He was employed to prepare navigational materials and maps for Raleigh’s expeditions. In 1585, Harriot joined the first English expedition to Roanoke Island (in modern-day North Carolina), documenting the Algonquin people and their language. His accounts are some of the earliest ethnographic records of Native American life. Raleigh is one of those who is also credited with bringing potatoes to England, along with Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins.
Harriot was born in Oxfordshire, England, and studied at St Mary Hall, Oxford (now part of Oriel College), graduating in 1580. He quickly gained a reputation as a brilliant mathematician and scientist. Harriot introduced algebraic notation in England and wrote extensively about equations, influencing later mathematicians. He is sometimes called the “Father of Algebra” in England. Harriot was one of the first people to use a telescope for astronomical observations, even before Galileo. He produced detailed drawings of the Moon’s surface in 1609, predating Galileo’s famous lunar sketches. Harriot also studied sunspots, Jupiter’s moons, and the motion of comets. He studied the refraction and dispersion of light through prisms and lenses, laying groundwork for later theories in optics. Harriot investigated projectile motion, offering insights into ballistics and prefiguring Galileo’s later work on the same subject. But we are straying from potatoes.
Harriot documented his findings in his 1588 report titled “A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia”, where he described various crops, including “roots” that were “both pleasant and wholesome”—thought to be sweet potatoes or other tubers. The white potato (Solanum tuberosum) is believed to have been brought to Europe earlier by Spanish explorers who encountered it in South America (modern-day Peru and Bolivia). The Spanish introduced the potato to Spain in the mid-1500s, and it spread across Europe from there.
Harriot’s work likely contributed to awareness of the sweet potato and reinforced the idea that New World crops were worth adopting, but he is not credited with physically introducing potatoes to England. In short, Harriot played an indirect role by documenting and promoting knowledge of new-world crops, but the potato’s journey to England was primarily due to other explorers. Quite what the significance of 3rd December is to the introduction of the potato, only On This Day may know.