In the year 1606, when James I was king of England, he gave a charter or patent to a number of gentlemen, which made them the owners of all that part of America lying between the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth degrees of north latitude. The men who received this gift associated themselves together under the name of the London Company, and in the same year sent out three vessels, carrying 105 men, but no women or children. A storm drove them out of their course, and, in the month of May, they entered the mouth of a broad river, which they named the James in honor of their king. They sailed up stream for fifty miles, and, on the 13th of May, 1607, began the settlement of Jamestown, which was the first English Colony successfully planted in America.

Everything looked promising, but the trouble was that the men did not wish to work, and, instead of cultivating the soil, spent their time in hunting for gold which did not exist anywhere near them. They were careless in their manner of living and a great many fell ill and died. They must have perished before long had they not been wise enough to elect Captain John Smith president or ruler of the colony.
  

Colonial Virginia underwent several changes in its form of government. A "Great Charter" was granted to it in 1613 by the London Company. This permitted the settlers to make their own laws. The House of Burgesses, which was called together at Jamestown by Governor Yeardley, July 30, 1619, was the first legislative body that ever met in this country. King James was dissatisfied with the tendency of things, and in 1624 he took away the charter and granted a new one, which allowed the colony to elect the members of the House of Burgesses, while the king appointed the council and their governor. This made Virginia a royal province, which she remained until the Revolution.

Virginia became very prosperous. Immense quantities of tobacco were raised and sent to England and Holland, where it became widely popular. Its cultivation was so profitable in the colony that for a time little else was cultivated. It was planted even along the streets of Jamestown and became the money of the province. Everything was paid for in so many pounds of tobacco. The population steadily increased, and in 1715 was 95,000, which was the same as that of Massachusetts. A half-century later, Virginia was the richest and most important of the thirteen colonies. The people lived mostly on large plantations, for land was plentiful and the Indians gave no further trouble. Most of the inhabitants were members of the Church of England, and their assemblies passed severe laws against the entrance of people of other religious beliefs into the colony. It required the furnace blasts of the Revolution to purify Virginia and some other provinces of this spirit of intolerance.

Education was neglected or confined to the rich who could send their children to England to be educated. Some of the early schools were destroyed by Indians, but William and Mary College, founded in 1692, was the second college in the United States. It was never a very strong institution.