Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia — John Shaqi
Hallowed Heritage: The Life of VirginiaTorpey, Dorothy Margaret
History
Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia
Torpey, Dorothy Margaret
Virginia -- Civilization
John Ratcliffe and Captain John Smith succeeded to the presidency
of the council after Captain Wingfield. While Smith was president
of the council, King James I granted another charter for Virginia
in 1609 upon the reorganization of the London Company. This charter
provided that: (1) the area of Virginia was henceforth to include
all the land on its eastern coast 200 miles north and 200 miles
south of Old Point Comfort and extending from the Atlantic Ocean
west and northwest to the Pacific Ocean; therefore, Virginia
included at this time land now found in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana,
Maryland, North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Wisconsin and
part of Minnesota; (2) a Resident Council was to be established
which would have the power to distribute land, make all laws and
appoint all officers for Virginia's government; membership in the
council was to result from election by the members of the company in
England, a majority vote being required for the election; and (3)
the colonists were to take the Oath of Supremacy making the Church
of England the only recognized church of the colony.
In the same year, Captain John Smith bought a tract of land located
near Richmond from the Indian Chief, Powhatan, and there he founded
a settlement which he called "None Such." He named it thus because
he believed there was "none such" site as scenically beautiful
anywhere. This site was formerly Emperor Powhatan's summer court
location.
In the same year also Thomas West, Lord de la Warr (Delaware),
became the "Lord Governor and Captaine Generall" of the Virginia
colony. Although he held this office until June 1618, he remained in
England during this time because of ill health with the exception
of the period June 1610-March 1611. In May 1610, Sir Thomas Gates,
the first Governor of the colony of Virginia, arrived at Jamestown.
Captain George Percy had succeeded Captain Smith as president of the
Council. Starvation from a lack of food supplies followed, and the
population of the colony was reduced from 500 to 60 people. These
sixty were approximately fourteen miles away from Jamestown on their
way back to England when some of Lord de la Warr's ships arrived
bringing food and fifty additional settlers. Lord de la Warr was
responsible also for having a trading post established at Hampton.
Today, Hampton is the oldest continuous Anglo-Saxon settlement still
in existence in the United States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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