Jamestown, Virginia, was established in 1607 as England’s first permanent settlement in North America.
The Virginia Company of London sent settlers to establish a profitable colony along the James River. The settlers arrived in May 1607 and built James Fort on Jamestown Island, naming it for King James I of England.
Jamestown was not the first English attempt to colonize the region. The earlier Roanoke Colony, founded in the 1580s, disappeared and did not become a permanent settlement. Jamestown survived partly because tobacco cultivation later created an economically valuable export.
The settlement also became important politically. In 1619, Virginia’s General Assembly met at Jamestown, creating one of the earliest representative legislative bodies in English America. Jamestown served as Virginia’s colonial capital until the capital moved to Williamsburg in 1699.