Browse Items (12 total)

Alexander Spotswood served from 1710 to 1722 as lieutenant governor of Virginia, in the place of the royal governor who never came to the colony. During his tenure, Spotswood sought to improve the colony's security and economy and relations with…

William Berkeley (1605–1677) was the longest-serving royal governor of Virginia. He served as a Crown governor (an appointee of the King of England) between 1642 until 1652 and again from 1660 until his death in 1677. In his late twenties, Berkeley…

After John Rolfe's successful experimentation with the West Indies tobacco plant, Nicotaiana tabacum, the Virginia Company of London realized that it had found a profitable product to export from the colony. Tobacco cultivation spread widely through…

The first representative assembly in English North America met in the church at Jamestown on July 30, 1619.  Following instructions from the Virginia Company of London, the governor was empowered to call a general assembly to handle public matters…

In the 17th Century, Anthony Johnson of Northampton County, was one of only a few documented Black landowners in the Virginia Colony. Anthony arrived in the Virginia Colony in 1621. He was likely from Angola and was renamed “Antonio” after he was…

Among his many skills, George Washington was a well-respected land surveyor. After the death of his father in 1743, eleven-year-old George Washington inherited the small Ferry Farm on the Rappahannock River. As he got older, Washington’s interests…

By the 17th century, England was becoming a leader in the intercontinental trade of goods. Wealthy merchants created joint-stock companies which would promote exploration and increase trade routes. Investors in these companies pooled their resources…

Phillip Gowen (whose surname sometimes appears as Cowen or Corven) was the son of a freed African servant. He was bound out as an indentured servant late in the 17th century. He was, like all indentured servants at that time, required to serve a…

The Fry- Jefferson map was first published in 1753. It was, at the time, the most comprehensive map of 18th Century Virginia. Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson were two of the most successful surveyors in the Virginia Colony. They collaborated and…

Thomas West (1576–1618), the twelfth Baron De La Warr, was appointed by King James I in 1606 to be part of the royal council that oversaw the Virginia Company of London. He monitored the situation in the Virginia colony from England and may have…