Charles City (Virginia Company)
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Charles City (or Charles Cittie as it was then called) was one of four incorporations established in the
Virginia Colony The Colony of Virginia was a British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colony lasted for t ...
in 1619 by the proprietor, the
Virginia Company The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the objective of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day ...
.Foley, Louise Pledge Heath (1978, 2002 reprint). ''Early Families Along the James River'', p. vi. Genealogical Publishing Co. In 1613, Bermuda City was founded, which was later renamed after
Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...
. In 1634, under Royal authority, a portion became Charles City Shire,Long, Charles M. (1908)
''Virginia County Names: Two Hundred and Seventy Years of Virginia History''
p. 31. The Neale Publishing Company.
later Charles City County.


History

Algonquian-speaking Native Americans migrated to the area from the north at least 800 years before the first Europeans arrived. It was home to the Chickahominy, Paspahegh and Weyanock tribes when the '' Susan Constant'', the '' Godspeed'' and the ''
Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...
'' entered the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in 1607 and sailed up the James River. By the time of the English colonization of the area, the greatest power in the Virginia Tidewater region was the Powhatan confederacy of thirty tribes."Colonization", ''James River Plantations'', National Park Service
/ref> The plantations and developments were divided into four "incorporations" or "citties" ''(sic)'', as they were called. These were Charles City, Elizabeth City, Henrico City, and James City. The latter included the seat of government for the colony at Jamestown. Each of the four "" extended across the
James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...
, the main conduit of transportation of the era. In 1611 Kecoughtan (Elizabeth City) was established on a permanent basis and Henrico was laid out. In 1613 the fourth of the Company settlements was established as Bermuda City which was to become Charles City, named after
Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...
. While some settlers farmed the land, others made pitch, tar, potash, and charcoal for the Company.Hatch Jr., Charles E., ''The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607–1624'', The University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1957
/ref>


References


External links


"History", Charles City County
{{authority control Populated places in colonial Virginia Charles City County, Virginia Populated places established in 1619 1619 establishments in the Colony of Virginia