Founding The
Colony of Virginia was founded by a
joint-stock company, the
Virginia Company, as a private venture, though under a
royal charter. Early governors provided the stern leadership and harsh judgments required for the colony to survive its early difficulties. Early crises with famine, disease,
Native American raids, the need to establish
cash crops, and lack of skilled or committed labor, meant the colony needed to attract enough new and responsible settlers if it were to grow and prosper. To encourage settlers to come to Virginia, in November 1618 the Virginia Company's leaders gave instructions to the new governor,
Sir George Yeardley, which became known as "the great charter." It established that immigrants who paid their own way to Virginia would receive fifty acres of land and not be mere tenants. The civil authority would control the military. In 1619, based on the instructions, Yeardley initiated the election of 22 burgesses by the settlements and Jamestown. They, together with the royally appointed Governor and six-member Council of State, would form the first General Assembly as a
unicameral body. A
House of Assembly was created at the same time in
Bermuda (which had also been settled by the Virginia Company, and was by then managed by its offshoot, the
Somers Isles Company) and held its first session in 1620. A handful of
Polish craftsmen, brought to the colony to supply skill in the manufacture of pitch, tar, potash, and soap ash, were initially denied full political rights. They downed their tools in protest but returned to work after being declared
free and enfranchised, apparently by agreement with the Virginia Company.
First session On July 30, 1619, Yeardley convened the Virginia General Assembly as the first
representative legislature in the Americas for a six-day meeting at
the new timber church on
Jamestown Island, Virginia. The unicameral Assembly was composed of the Governor, a Council of State appointed by the Virginia Company, and the 22 locally elected representatives. The Assembly's first session of July 30, 1619, was cut short by an outbreak of
malaria and adjourned after five days. On the third day of the assembly, the assembly's Journal noted "Mr. Shelley, one of the Burgesses, deceased." Twenty-two (22) members were sent to the assembly from the following constituencies: • from
James City:
William Powell and
William Spence • from
Charles City:
Samuel Sharpe and
Samuel Jordan • from
the City of Henricus:
Thomas Dowse and
John Pollington • from
Kecoughtan:
William Tucker and
William Capps • from
Smythe's Hundred:
Thomas Graves and
Walter Shelley • from
Martin's Hundred: John Boys and John Jackson • from
Argall's Gift Plantation: Thomas Pawlett and Edward Gourgainy • from
Flowerdew Hundred Plantation:
Edmund Rossingham and John Jefferson • from Lawne's Plantation:
Christopher Lawne and
Thomas Washer • from Ward's Plantation:
John Warde and
John Gibbs • from
Martin's Brandon: Thomas Davis and
Robert Stacy The latter two burgesses were excluded from the assembly because John Martin refused to give up a clause in his land patent that exempted his borough "from any command of the colony except it be aiding and assisting the same against any foreign or domestic enemy."
Later 17th century Especially after the
massacre of almost 400 colonists on March 22, 1622, by
Native Americans, and epidemics in the winters before and after the massacre, the governor and council ruled
arbitrarily, showing great contempt for the assembly and allowing no dissent. By 1624, the royal government in
London had heard enough about the problems of the colony and revoked the charter of the Virginia Company. Virginia became a
crown colony and the governor and council would be appointed by
the Crown. Nonetheless, the Assembly maintained management of local affairs with some informal royal assent, although it was not royally confirmed until 1639. In 1652, the parliamentary forces of
Oliver Cromwell forced the colony to submit to being taken over by the English government. Again, the colonists were able to retain the General Assembly as their governing body. Only taxes agreed to by the assembly were to be levied. Still, most Virginia colonists were loyal to Prince Charles and were pleased with his restoration as King
Charles II in 1660. He went on to directly or indirectly restrict some of the liberties of the colonists, such as requiring tobacco to be shipped only to England, only on English ships, with the price set by the English merchant buyers; but the General Assembly remained. Bacon took little part in the deliberations since he was busy fighting the Native Americans. In 1691, the House of Burgesses abolished the enslavement of Native peoples; however, many Powhatans were held in servitude well into the 18th century. The statehouse in Jamestown burned down for the fourth time on October 20, 1698. The General Assembly met temporarily in
Middle Plantation, inland from
Jamestown, and then in 1699 permanently moved the capital of the colony to Middle Plantation, which they renamed
Williamsburg. ==Moving toward independence==