Tobacco cultivation as practiced at Jamestown. (A conjectural painting by Sidney E. King.)
THE SPREAD OF SETTLEMENT.
Jamestown was planned as the first permanent English settlement in Virginia. The fixed intention was to establish other seats as soon as possible. As the limitations of Jamestown became obvious, the desire for other townsites was intensified. Soon after the settlement was made at Jamestown, temporary garrisons were placed at outlying points for protective and administrative reasons—at Kecoughtan (Hampton-Newport News), Cape Henry, and at the falls of the James. The first efforts in this direction, except at Kecoughtan, ended in the autumn of 1609 under pressure from the Indians. With the arrival of Delaware, Kecoughtan (renamed Elizabeth City in 1619) was established as a permanent settlement. Dale and Gates went on to establish the city of Henricus (Henrico) well up the James near the falls. Then came Charles City (the earlier Bermuda Nether Hundred) which developed into the last of the four settlements established by the company, each of which had the designation “city.” These four settlements were the only towns specifically set up by the company and consequently under its complete control. These later came to be mentioned in the records as the “Four Ancient Boroughs” or “four ancient Incorporations.” As one of these, Jamestown became the center of the political subdivision that developed into one of the original Virginia shires in 1634. Within the next decade the term county replaced that of shire, and today, although Jamestown has ceased to exist as a corporate organization, James City County continues to function as the oldest governing unit in English America.
Although the four “cities” constituted the first settlements in Virginia and were the only ones established directly under company control, they were but the beginning. About 1616, a new plan gave rise to the creation of settlements known as “particular plantations,” sometimes called “hundreds” as a result of the practice of awarding land on the basis of 100 acres or of sending settlers in groups of the same number. These were established with company permission, which included a grant of land made to individual groups of stockholders organized for the purpose of setting up a specific settlement. The first of these was Martin’s Hundred, in 1617, and others followed rapidly. By the summer of 1619, there were seven particular plantations already functioning, in addition to the original “cities,” a term sometimes thought to derive from the form of government being used by the “City of Geneva” in Switzerland which was held in high esteem by some of the company officials, particularly by Sir Edwin Sandys who became Treasurer of the Virginia Company in 1618.
With the spread of settlement east and west along the James and outward along its rivers and creeks as well, Jamestown lay approximately in the center of an expanding and growing colony. It was the capital town and the principal center of the colony’s social and political life. In size it remained small, yet it was intimately and directly related to all of the significant developments of the 17th century. Its physical aspects changed with the evolution of 17th century architectural patterns and designs. Life in the town was varied and perhaps representative of the best in the colony for almost a century. As wealth accumulated, the manner of living broadened and improved. There is strong evidence that Jamestown was the first to feel the impact of the advantages and efforts that this produced, particularly in the first half century of its existence. Material progress is evident as early as 1619 in the letter of John Pory, secretary of the colony, written from Virginia late in that year:
Nowe that your lordship may knowe, that we are not the variest beggars in the worlde, our cowekeeper here of James citty on Sunday goes accowtered all in freshe flaming silke; and a wife of one that in England had professed the black arte, not of a schollar, but of a collier of Croydon, weares her rough bever hatt with a faire perle hatband, and a silken suite thereto correspondent.
THE BEGINNING OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT.
In 1618, there were internal changes in the Virginia Company that led to the resignation of Sir Thomas Smith as treasurer, and to the election of Sir Edwin Sandys as his successor. This roughly corresponded to changes in company policy toward the administration of the colony and to intensified efforts to develop Virginia. It led to the abolition of martial law, to the establishment of individual property ownership, and greater freedom and participation in matters of government. Virginia already enjoyed a high degree of religious freedom due, perhaps, to the fact that a number of company officers were strongly under the influence of the puritan element within the Church of England. This, together with the fact that Virginia was not settled purely for religious reasons, caused less stress to be put on absolute uniformity in church matters. Sir George Yeardley, recently knighted, returned to Virginia as governor in April 1619, and was the first spokesman in the colony for the new policy toward Virginia. In England it had been ably advanced on behalf of the colony by Sir Edwin Sandys, the Earl of Southampton, and John and Nicholas Ferrar.
Soon after his arrival, Yeardley issued a call for a representative legislative assembly which convened at Jamestown on July 30, 1619, and remained in session until August 4. This was the earliest example of our present system of representative government in America. The full intentions behind the moves that led to this historic meeting may never be known. It seems to have been an attempt to give to the Englishmen in America those rights and privileges of Englishmen that had been guaranteed to them in the original company charter, rather than a planned attempt to establish self-government in the New World on a scale that might have been in violation of English law and custom at the time. Whatever the motive, the significance of this meeting in the church at Jamestown remains the same. This body of duly chosen representatives of the people has continued in existence and its evolution leads directly to our State legislatures and to the Congress of the United States.