in 1607 the Plymouth division of the Virginia Company established the Popham (Sagadahoc) colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in what today is Maine
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
in 1607 the Plymouth division of the Virginia Company established the Popham (Sagadahoc) colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in what today is Maine
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
English colonization of Virginia was organized by a for-profit company.
In 1606, wealthy men in England combined their capital in a joint stock company that was authorized by King James I. They invested in The Virginia Company of London with the expectation that the company would be profitable and pay dividends. King James I issued a charter, what today would be equivalent to articles of incorporation, on April 10, 1606. That charter was revised in 1609 and again in 1612.
The Virginia Company had two components. The Virginia Company of London ("London Company") was chartered together with the Virginia Company of Plymouth ("Plymouth Company"), whose investors came primarily from Bristol, Exeter, and Plymouth. As articulated in the charter, the London investers were expected to settle between 34-41° latitude. The Plymouth Company was authorized to settle between 38-45° latitude:1
The 1570 effort by the Spanish to create a colony in Virginia was funded by the Catholic church. English colonization in Virginia, a much larger initiative, was funded by a small number of what would later be called venture capitalists. King James I did not have to contribute any funding; he approved the charter to expand the power and glory of England without risking his personal wealth.
He ensured the company would obey his guidance by including in the charter that he would appoint the 13 members of His Majesty's Council for Virginia. That governing "board of directors" was in charge of policies and operations of both the London and Plymouth companies. It reported to the British Privy Council in London. If actions of the company triggered a strong response from the Spanish, then through the charter of a private company King James I had both plausible deniability and the power to change the behavior of the colonists.
Richard Hakluyt (the elder) had advocated that creating colonies would expand the English economy and advance the Christian faith by converting the Native Americans. Explorers might discover gold, silver, or copper. They might identify a Northwest Passage to open trade with China and the Spice Islands, bypassing the Portuguese and Spanish.
Hakluyt summarized his arguments:2
Queen Elizabeth I had allowed private investors to venture their capital and their lives. Humphrey Gilbert and Walter Ralegh followed Hakluyt's recommendations, but Gilbert drowned and Ralegh's colony on Roanoke Island disappeared. Other adventurers such as Francis Drake chose to recruit men just to sail on ships, serving as raiders and plunderers of Spanish settlements rather than as colonists being planted on land.3
The Virginia Company was not the first joint stock company formed in England. The Company of Merchant Adventurers was organized in 1551 with the goal of opening a trade route eastward to China by sailing north of Scandinavia and Russia. In 1555 the Company of Merchant Adventurers was renamed the Muscovy Company and it searched for a Northeast Passage north of Russia to China. It sent Henry Hudson in 1607 and again in 1608 to the northern edge of Scandinavia. After failing to get rehired by the English, Hudson was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company in 1609 and explored the river later named after him in New York.
The Levant Company (Company of Turkey Merchants) was chartered in 1581 to facilitate the trade in spices brought overland to the Mediterranean. Another joint stock company to expand trade to Asia was chartered in 1600, the East India Company.4
The wealthy elite centered in London organized about 10 such companies before forming the Virgina Company in 1606. King James had signed a peace treaty with Spain in 1604; that ended a long war. After the treaty was signed, ships of each nation were supposed to be safe from attack. Letters of marque were no longer valid; any non-naval Spanish ship seizing an English ship would be committing piracy.
Peace created the opportunity for England to compete with Spain in colonizing North America. The English gentry could no longer finance vessels and use letters of marque to gain wealth, but those with wealth to invest in risky ventures could renew the initiative they had shown in the 1580's at the Outer Banks and Roanoke Island.
The Virginia Company always considered Spain to be a serious threat, despite the peace treaty. The colonists were directed to sail upstream far enough for their 1607 settlement to be protected from a surprise attack. The risk was not theoretical. The Spanish had destroyed the French colony at Fort Caroline in 1564 near modern Jacksonville Florida, and Sir Francis Drake had burned St. Augustine in 1586. Peace between Spain and England was expected to be just temporary.
The Virginia Company recognized that Spain had lost much of its military capacity after the Spanish Armada invasion failed in 1588. The investors, and King James I, gambled that Spain's objections to England's colonization efforts in North America would be just diplomatic and would not involve military force. Modern investors in conflict zones such as the Middle East make similar calculations when assessing risks and potential rewards.
Creating the Virginia Company as a joint-stock enterprise allowed investors to share the risk. Each share in the Virginia Company cost an investor 12 pounds 10 shillings, and those wishing to gain larger profits by a larger investment could purchase multiple shares.5
The London Company sent colonists across the Atlantic Ocean before the Plymouth Company. It recruited 105 colonists who sailed on the Susan Constant, Godspeed< and
Seven men were given authority to govern the colony, but they were not identified until the three ships reached the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and the box with the company's instructions was opened on April 26, 1607. One of the seven was John Smith, an adventurer with a history of assertive behavior and the expertise/luck to escape dangerous situations.
When the three ships headed to Jamestown had reached only the Canary Islands, he was placed in chains. Evidently he had irritated the more-refined leaders with his uncouth style. The other six members of the Council initially refused to let him participate, but soon accepted that they had to follow the instructions of the company.
Waiting to identify those who would be on the seven-member Council, which would be in charge on land, may have been intended to reinforce the authority of the three ship captains on the water journey. Captain Christopher Newport, in overall command of the three ships during the journey, had only one arm but a strong enough personality to get his orders obeyed even after landing in Virginia.
Gabriel Archer recommended one site for the settlement, which became known as Archer's Hope. Edward Maria Wingfield, an investor in the Virginia Company who (unlike Archer) had been selected to be the council, convinced the expedition to settle on Jamestown Island slightly further upstream.
John Smith later wrote that in the process of choosing the site, "some contention passed betwixt Captaine Wingfield and Captaine Gosnold." Bartholomew Gosnold was a cousin of Edward Maria Wingfield, but also an ally of Archer. From the beginning, the leadership that was supposed to implement the instructions of the Virginia Company was divided.7
The Plymouth Company, the other half of the Virginia Company, sent the Gift of God and Mary and John with 100 Plymouth Company colonists six months after the three ships of the London Company. Sir George Popham, one of the primary investors, sailed with those colonists to North America
The Gift of God and Mary and John landed at the mouth of the Kennebec River. The colonists built Fort St. George and established the Popham Colony, also called Sagadahoc Colony.
The Mary and John returned to England in October with news of the settlement's location. By December it was clear that the Popham colonists had to reduce their food requirements; half of them sailed back to England on the Gift of God. The remaining colonists built the first English ship in North America, a pinnace they named Virginia.
Sir George Popham stayed behind, but he died in February 1608. Raleigh Gilbert assumed the leadership role. When Mary and John came back with supplies in 1608, it brought news that Gilbert's brother had died and he had to return to England to collect the inheritance. All the colonists returned with him, some on the Virginia, and the Popham Colony was abandoned. Those who funded the Plymouth Company joint-stock enterprise received no return on their risky investment.
The Virginia sailed back across the Atlantic Ocean to Jamestown as part of the Third Supply in 1609. It survived the storm which wrecked the Sea Venture on Bermuda. In 1620 a totally different Plymouth Colony was founded in what became known as Massachusetts.
The Virginia Company recognized that a Council electing its President in Virginia was not an effective form of government. It obtained a second charter from King James I in 1609 and sent Francis West Lord de la Warre to serve as governor. Authority was concentrated in that one position. Thomnas Gates was sent with the Third Supply in 1609 to govern the colony before de la Warre would sail to Virginia a year later.
Gates was on the Sea Venture. After it was caught in a hurricane and wrecked, he spent the winter on Bermuda. Gates arrived in 1610 and, after assessing the inadequate food supply after a winter of starvation at Jamestown, used his authority to order the colonists to load up on the available ships and sail back to England. The Virginia Company investors were going to share the experience of the Plymouth Company investors.
However, Lord de la Warre arrived just in time to intercept the fleeing colonists; everyone returned to Jamestown. The company implemented harsh controls with martial law, hoping to force the indentured worers to generate profits. With no opportunity to extract wealth from a Native American society and no rich mineral deposits to develop, there was little opportunity to squeeze an economic return no matter how hard the colonists worked.
That changed after John Rolfe planted a new form of tobacco. He shipped 400 pounds to England in 1614; by 1620, the colonists were shipping 25,000 pounds per year. Growing more tobacco required displacing the indigenous population and clearing the forest to plant more fields, and acquiring more agricultural laborers.
The Virginia Company investors changed Sir Edwin Sandys's election as Treasurer of the Virginia Company of London - he defeated Sir Thomas Smith on April 19, 1619. He was not formally in charge when the company issued The Great Charter of November, 1618, the instructions given to Governor George Yeardley