Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America, established in Virginia in 1607.
The Virginia Company founded Jamestown on an island in the James River on May 14, 1607. The settlement was named for King James I of England. Its location was defensible and accessible by water, but the site had serious disadvantages, including disease, brackish water, and vulnerability to flooding.
Jamestown survived periods of hunger, conflict, and political instability. Tobacco cultivation became economically important after John Rolfe developed a profitable export crop. In 1619, the settlement hosted the first representative legislative assembly in English America, the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Jamestown is distinct from Plymouth, which was founded by English Pilgrims in 1620, and Roanoke, an earlier English colony that disappeared. St. Augustine, founded by Spain in 1565, predates Jamestown but was not an English settlement.