Author Note

The first Virginia Assembly gathered on July 30, 1619 under Governor George Yeardley. The Assembly was involved in the legislation of the colony with the Virginia Company until the company’s charter was revoked in 1624.

The members of the Virginia Assembly responsible for the document were: Francis Wyatt, George Sandis, John Pott, John Powntis, Roger Smith, Raphe Hamor, William Tucker, William Peerce, Rawley Croshaw, Samuel Mathews, Jabez Whittaker, John Wilcom, Nicholas Marten, Edward Blany, Isack Madisone, Clement Dilke, Luke Boyse, John Utie, John Chew, Richard Stephens, John Southerne, Samuel Sharpe, Henry Watkins, Nathanell Causey, Richare Bigge, Richard Kingswell, John Pollington, Robert Addams, Gabriell Holland, and Thomas Marlott.

Jamestown Settlement

The London Company sponsored the expedition to establish a profitable colony. The expedition started December 20, 1606 with 144 men but only 104 survived the trip across the Atlantic Ocean. No women were a part of the initial expedition. In 1609, about six hundred people, including women and children, joined the colony in the hopes of making it more like a settlement

Other voyages brought more settlers in the years between 1606 and 1624 expanding the population and goals of the Jamestown colony until its dissolution June 16, 1624.

The Virginia Assembly of 1624 reported on the status of the colony and their desire to end the venture due to the poor state of the people and the colony’s buildings. They described the lack of food and supplies that led to sickness, starvation, and death as a major problem caused by the Virginia Company’s lack of consistent support. They further complained that the rules of Governor Thomas Smith had reduced the colonists to virtual slaves

Document Note

The document was published in Edward D. Neill’s History of the Virginia Company of London (1869). Archival records of the company were transcribed during the 1620s and later obtained by Thomas Jefferson for the Library of Congress. They were printed in the nineteenth century in History of the Virginia Company of London… by Edward D. Neill (Albany, N.Y., J. Munsell, 1869). The document given here appeared in Lyon Gardiner Tyler’s Narratives of Early Virginia, 1606-1625 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907)

Other Internet and Reference Sources

The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities has a website with information at
http://www.apva.org/history/vaco.html

The National Park Service maintains an excellent short Web page on the Virginia Company of London at http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/VACompany.html