Colony of Virginia

Colony of Virginia
1606–1776
Flag Coat of arms
Motto:  "En dat Virginia quintum" (English: "Behold, Virginia gives the fifth")[1]
Seal
The Colony of Virginia with current country borders
Status	Proprietary colony (1606–1624) Crown colony (1624–1776)
Capital	Jamestown (1607–1699) Williamsburg (1699–1776)
Common languages	English Siouan Iroquoian Algonquian
Religion	Church of England (Anglicanism)[2]
Government
• Monarch	(First) James VI & I (Last) George III
Governor
• 1584	Edward Wingfield (First)
• 1776	Lord Dunmore (Last)
Legislature	General Assembly
• Upper House	Governor's Council (1607–1776)
• Lower House	House of Burgesses (1619–1776)
Historical era	European colonization of the Americas
• Roanoke Colony Established	1585
• First Charter	April 10, 1606
• First Landing	April 26, 1607
• Founding of Jamestown	May 14, 1607
• Second Charter	May 23, 1609
• House of Burgesses Formed	July 30, 1619
• Became royal colony	May 24, 1624
• Independence	July 4, 1776
• Constitution Ratified	June 25, 1788
Currency	Virginia pound (1624–1793)
Preceded by Succeeded by Tsenacommacah Virginia
Today part of	United States Bermuda (British Overseas Territory)

The Colony of Virginia was a British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776.

The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colony lasted for three attempts totaling six years. In 1590, the colony was abandoned. But nearly 20 years later, the colony was re-settled at Jamestown, not far north of the original site. A second charter was issued in 1606 and settled in 1607, becoming the first enduring English colony in North America. It followed failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey Gilbert^[3] in 1583 and the Roanoke Colony (in modern eastern North Carolina) by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 1580s.

The founder of the Jamestown colony was the Virginia Company,^[4] chartered by King James I, with its first two settlements being in Jamestown on the north bank of the James River and Popham Colony on the Kennebec River in modern-day Maine, both in 1607. The Popham colony quickly failed because of famine, disease, and conflicts with local Native American tribes in the first two years. Jamestown occupied land belonging to the Powhatan Confederacy; it was also on the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies by ship in 1610. Tobacco became Virginia's first profitable export, the production of which had a significant impact on the society and settlement patterns.

In 1624, the Virginia Company's charter was revoked by King James I, and the Virginia Colony was transferred to royal authority as a crown colony. After the English Civil War in the 1640s and 1650s, the Virginia colony was nicknamed "The Old Dominion" by King Charles II for its perceived loyalty to the English monarchy during the era of the Protectorate and Commonwealth of England.^[5]

From 1619 to 1775/1776, the colonial legislature of Virginia was the General Assembly, which governed in conjunction with a colonial governor. Jamestown remained the capital of the Virginia Colony until 1699; from 1699 until its dissolution, the capital was in Williamsburg. The colony experienced its first significant political turmoil with Bacon's Rebellion of 1676.

After declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1775, before the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted, the Virginia Colony became the Commonwealth of Virginia, one of the original thirteen states of the United States, adopting as its official slogan "The Old Dominion". The entire modern states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, and portions of Ohio and Western Pennsylvania were later created from the territory encompassed, or claimed by, the colony of Virginia at the time of further American independence in July 1776.