Jamestown was founded as the first permanent English settlement in the Americas on May 14, 1607.
The settlement was established on Jamestown Island in the Colony of Virginia by the Virginia Company of London. A fleet led by Captain Christopher Newport carried the colonists, who built a fortified settlement named James Fort in honor of King James I. The location offered defensive advantages but had poor drinking water, mosquitoes, and difficult agricultural conditions.
Jamestown followed earlier English attempts, especially the Roanoke Colony, which disappeared in the late sixteenth century. Many Jamestown colonists died from disease, hunger, and conflict, particularly during the Starving Time winter of 1609–1610. The settlement survived and expanded after tobacco became a profitable export.
Jamestown served as Virginia’s capital until 1699, when the seat of government moved to Williamsburg. Its history also includes the 1619 meeting of Virginia’s General Assembly, one of the earliest representative legislative bodies in English North America.