Virginia Company

On April 10, 1606, James I. set apart by t charter the territory between Cape Fear and Pa amaquoddy Bay to be settled by two rival companies, the Virginia Company of London, and the North Virginia or Plymouth Company. To the London, or Virginia Company proper, was granted the land between parallels 34° and 41° north, or between Cape Fear and Long Island. This company was composed of London merchants and adventurers. In 1606 an expedition consisting of three ve els and 143 men, commanded by Christopher Newport, was fitted out, and succeeded in founding, May 13, 1607, the first permanent English settlement in America at James town, Va. In 1609 a new charter was granted and the company reincorporated under the name of the London Company of Virginia; still another in 1612. Other colonizing parties arrived in 1609, 1611 and 1619, and by 1620 the colony of Virginia was firmly established. The majority, in the company was of the political party in England opposed to the court. It fell inte difficulties with the king, who in 1624 caused its charter to be annulled. ‘The company then di olved. 343