Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, established in Virginia in 1607.
The Virginia Company of London founded Jamestown on an island in the James River on May 14, 1607, under a charter from King James I. The settlement was named for the king and became the administrative center of the Virginia Colony.
Jamestown followed earlier English attempts, including the Roanoke Colony, which disappeared after failing to become permanent. The settlement struggled with disease, hunger, poor sanitation, and conflict with nearby Indigenous communities. During the Starving Time winter of 1609–1610, only about 60 of the original settlers survived.
Jamestown later became important to the development of Virginia’s tobacco economy and representative government. In 1619, the colony held the first recorded meeting of its elected legislative assembly, the House of Burgesses. Jamestown was the colonial capital until the government moved to Williamsburg in 1699.