Timeline of Jamestown, Virginia

This is a timeline of events related to the settlement of Jamestown, in what today is the U.S. state of Virginia. Dates use the Old Style calendar (e.g., the settlement naming occurred ).

Before 1606



 * June 1561: Native Virginian Paquiquineo is kidnapped by Antonio Velázquez in Chesapeake Bay. Some historians believe Paquiquineo and Opechancanough are the same individual.
 * Sept 8 1565: The Spanish Empire settles St. Augustine, Florida. Spain annexes parts of the Outer Banks, calling the region (north to Delaware Bay) "La Florida".
 * c. Feb 1571: Paquiquineo, now Christened as "Don Luís de Velasco", slays eight Jesuit missionaries attempting to setup Ajacán Mission.
 * c. : Walter Raleigh is granted a charter by Queen Elizabeth II, naming the North American coast "Virginia" in tribute to her. This leads to the establishment of a colony on Roanoke Island with 108 men.
 * May-June 1602: Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, Captain Bartholomew Gilbert, Captain Gabriel Archer, and others explore the New World coast with the intention of starting a colony but occupy Cuttyhunk Island for only a few weeks before returning to England
 * March 24, 1603: Queen Elizabeth I dies. James VI of Scotland becomes King James I of England.
 * c. 1605: Chesapeake people are slain by order of Powhatan (Native American leader)
 * c. 1605: Chesapeake people are slain by order of Powhatan (Native American leader)

1607

 * c.
 * March 28 1607: John Smith is spared from execution by hanging by the Reverend Robert Hunt and Bartholomew Gosnold, but is kept as a prisoner
 * c. May 1607: Settlers deposit three pigs on Hog Island for safekeeping.
 * c. 
 * c. May 1607: Settlers deposit three pigs on Hog Island for safekeeping.
 * c. 
 * c. May 1607: Settlers deposit three pigs on Hog Island for safekeeping.
 * c. 
 * c. 
 * c. 
 * c.
 * c. 
 * c.
 * c. August 1607: About 100 Englishmen arrive to settle Popham Colony (in present day Maine)
 * 1607-12-10 John Smith takes nine men on a shallop to explore and find food up the Chickahominy River. George Cassen is captured and tortured to death
 * c. August 1607: About 100 Englishmen arrive to settle Popham Colony (in present day Maine)
 * 1607-12-10 John Smith takes nine men on a shallop to explore and find food up the Chickahominy River. George Cassen is captured and tortured to death
 * 1607-12-10 John Smith takes nine men on a shallop to explore and find food up the Chickahominy River. George Cassen is captured and tortured to death
 * 1607-12-10 John Smith takes nine men on a shallop to explore and find food up the Chickahominy River. George Cassen is captured and tortured to death
 * 1607-12-10 John Smith takes nine men on a shallop to explore and find food up the Chickahominy River. George Cassen is captured and tortured to death

1608

 * c. January 1608: only 38 to 40 colonists are alive. Ratcliffe and the Council planned to return to England on Discovery.
 * c. 1608-01-05: John Smith uses a compass to confound Opecanchanough and his hunting party, avoiding death
 * c. January 1608: John Smith returns to Jamestown from his encounter with Powhatan
 * c. January 1608: President John Ratcliffe holds John Smith responsible for the deaths of two English explorers, and is sentenced to death by hanging
 * January 7, 1608: At James Fort, a major fire occurs through carelessness, burning down most wattle shelters and the food storehouse. Colonists must live in the ruins to overwinter.
 * Feb 1608: Newport and Smith trade with Powhatan. Thomas Savage (a teenaged boy) is sent to live with natives; Namontack is sent to live with English.
 * c. 1608 Printing of John Smith's True Relation of Virginia in London, England.
 * June 8-10 1608: At Roaring Point, natives attempt to repel Smith and English explorers with archers waiting on the shore. The next evening, Smith comes ashore and leaves a basket of trade goods. Eventually, four Nanticoke men unaware of the situation meet with Smith and spread the word that he does not wish to attack. Hundreds of native people come to talk and trade.
 * June 17 1608: At Nomini Bay, two native men invite Smith's shallop crew to go up the creek. They are led into an ambush. However, gunfire disarms the native, and ceasing fire, they exchange hostages. The weroance explains that paramount chief Powhatan had ordered the ambush.
 * c. June 18 to July 16 1608: Smith's exploration in the shallop continues, with charting of the Potomac River and towns along the way. The explorers meet a Wicocomico man named "Mosco". Smith guesses that he is partly of European descent due to facial hair. Mosco guides the English along a portion of the Potomac.
 * July 17 1608: Smith is wounded by stingray near the mouth of the Rappahannock River. He is treated by a doctor and survives. The area is named Stingray Point.
 * July 18-21 1608: Smith's shallop returns to Jamestown
 * July 1608: John Ratcliffe leaves office (either by resignation or deposition) in July 1608, two months before the end of his term
 * Sept 10, 1608: John Smith is elected to serve a one-year term as president of the council. His term was to end September 10, 1609. 
 * c. 
 * c.  ), which attempted to make Wahunsenacawh a vassal of King James I.
 * c. 1608: Hog Island contains a drove of 60 pigs, which go unused by colonists
 * c. autumn 1608: Jamestown Glasshouse is built by German glassmakers
 * November 1608: Jamestown's first wedding (of two English): Anne Burras marries John Laydon, a carpenter
 * c. 
 * c.  ), which attempted to make Wahunsenacawh a vassal of King James I.
 * c. 1608: Hog Island contains a drove of 60 pigs, which go unused by colonists
 * c. autumn 1608: Jamestown Glasshouse is built by German glassmakers
 * November 1608: Jamestown's first wedding (of two English): Anne Burras marries John Laydon, a carpenter

1609

 * c. springtime 1609: John Smith decrees, "He who does not work, neither shall he eat"
 * c. springtime 1609: John Smith decrees, "He who does not work, neither shall he eat"
 * c. July 1609: In the Chesapeake Bay, Spanish reconnaissance ship, La Asunción de Cristo, is driven off by the timely arrival of Mary and John (captained by Samuel Argall), preventing the Spanish Empire from discovering a weakened Jamestown. Pedro de Zúñiga y de la Cueva, the Spanish ambassador to England, was desperately seeking the location  in order to authorize an attack by Philip III of Spain.
 * c. summer 1609 Stephen Hopkins is accused of mutiny for wanting to remain in Bermuda, arguing the Virginia Company contract voided by shipwreck
 * c. fall 1609 Fort Algernon is built nearby Jamestown
 * c. Oct 1609: John Smith is severely wounded by a gunpowder accident, and must return to England for proper treatment.
 * c. Oct 1609: Captain George Percy takes over as president
 * Oct 4 1609: Seven of the nine ships of the "third supply" mission arrive, delivering approximately 350 colonists but little supply. Four of the ships had sufferers of yellow fever, while the Diamond and Unity also brought bubonic plague to the colony, killing at least 30 emigrants on the journey, and more over the following months. 
 * c.
 * c.
 * c.
 * c.
 * c. 
 * circa winter 1609-10 Gabriel Archer dies
 * c. 
 * circa winter 1609-10 Gabriel Archer dies

1610

 * Feb 1610: In the Somers Isles, Bermuda Rolfe (baby girl) is born to John Rolfe and Mistress Sarah Hacker Rolfe, but soon perishes
 * Feb 1610: In the Somers Isles, Bermudas Eason (baby boy) is born to Edward Eason and wife
 * March: 60 out of 500-600 colonists remain alive. Francis West and 36 men aren't counted as they had absconded to England.
 * May 10 1610: In the Somers Isles, Thomas Gates, Newport, Somers, and other castaway-colonists (totaling 137) board the Deliverance and Patience to sail to Jamestown. Two sailors (Christopher Carter and Edward-Robert Waters) remain behind on Bermuda.
 * May 24 1610: Thomas Gates and Thomas Dale issue Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall [sic], also known as Dale's Code, a martial law/authoritarian system of government
 * June 7: Thomas Gates and leaders decide to abandon Jamestown. Colonists plan to head north to Newfoundland fishing settlements for food and evacuation.
 * June 8: Jamestown refugees meet the supply ships of Thomas West, Lord De La Warr at Mulberry Island. Thomas West convinces the colonists to return to Jamestown with fresh supplies and healthy men.
 * July 9: St. John's Episcopal Church (Hampton, Virginia) is founded on Cape Henry
 * August 9, 1610 De la Warr sends Percy with 70 colonists to attack the Paspahegh and Chickahominy villages, burning buildings, destroying crops, and killing up to 75 natives. This ignited the first of the Anglo-Powhatan Wars.
 * June 19 1610: George Somers and Samuel Argall sail for Bermuda to gather wild hogs for Jamestown.
 * July 20, 1610: Christopher Newport and Thomas Gates leave Virginia (on the Blessinge and Hercules ) for England, where he will use his story of the Sea Venture wreck to advocate for the colony and to spur further investment. Aboard with him are two Virginia Indians recently taken prisoner: weroance Sasenticum and his son Kainta.
 * c. 9 November 1610 George Somers dies at Bermuda from exhaustion
 * c. 1610: Captained by Nathaniel West, the Mary Ann carries widow Mistress Francis West to Virginia
 * c. 1610: The Mary and James carries William Tucker to Virginia
 * c. 1610: The Mary and James carries William Tucker to Virginia

1611

 * c. 1611: Henricus is founded on Farrar's Island
 * c. January 4, 1611: Henry Spelman is returned to Samuel Argall, in trade for copper ore to Jopassus (brother to paramount chief)
 * c. winter 1611: Colonists suffer from scurvy, including "Kemps" a native. Dr. Lawrence Bohun experiments in treating the disease with local vegetables, such as Ipomoea purga and sassafras.
 * c. 1611: Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr contracts an illness. He boards a ship bound for Nevis, West Indies, (captained by Samual Argall), but is blown off course and forced to sail to England.
 * March 1611: When the Thomas West returns to England, he appoints George Percy to lead the colony in his absence.
 * August 1611: Sir Thomas Gates returns to Virginia at the head of an expedition that includes three ships, 280 men, 20 women, 200 heads of cattle, 200 swine, and various other supplies and equipment
 * c. 1611: Puritan Reverend Alexander Whitaker arrives in Jamestown.
 * c. 1611: John Rolfe cultivates Nicotiana tabacum as a viable cash crop (marketed as "Orinoco tobacco")

1612

 * c. 
 * c. 1612: The town of "New London" (later named St. George's) is founded, becoming the oldest continuously inhabited British town in the New World

1613

 * c. 1613: Thomas Dale founds "Bermuda Cittie", which was renamed to be "Charles City" (and then later, City Point, Virginia)
 * 13 April 1613: Samuel Argall abducts Pocahontas for use in prisoner exchange for return of English captives by Powhatan

1614

 * c.
 * 5 April 1614: Richard Buck officiates the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas (known as "Rebecca" Rolfe). A period of peace occurs between the natives and the colonists.
 * 1614 April 5: the Rolfes move to Varina Farms

1615

 * c. January 1615: Pocahontas gives birth to a son, Thomas Rolfe, at Varina Farms
 * c. 1615: the Somers Isles Company is formed by charter to colonize the "Somers Isles" (Bermuda)

1616

 * 1616: John Rolfe, "Rebecca Rolfe" (Pocahontas), son Thomas Rolfe, a company of about 12 Powhatans, Stephen Hopkins, Thomas Dale, and others leave for England. George Yeardley leads the settlement. 
 * April 1616: George Yeardley is appointed deputy-governour while Thomas Dale returns to England. Yeardley relaxes laws and punishments set by Dale's Code, and the colony prospers.

1617

 * c. 1617: Samuel Argall returns to Virginia to replace George Yeardley as governour, finding the town in a deteriorated state
 * c. In March 1617, John Rolfe and "Rebecca" (Pocahontas) board a ship to return to Virginia, but they had sail only as far as Gravesend on the River Thames when Pocahontas becomes gravely ill
 * c. March 1617: Rebecca/Pocahontas dies from unknown causes (perhaps a respiratory disease), aged 20 or 21 years.
 * c. 1617 Alexander Whitaker drowns in the James River

1618

 * c. 1618: Powhatan (Native American leader) dies. His son Opechancanough succeeds as chief-paramount
 * c. 1618 April: Lord De La Warr dies en route to Virginia, and is replaced by George Yeardley
 * c. October, 1618: George Yeardley and wife Temperance Flowerdew travel to England
 * November 18, 1618: The Virginia Company of London issues its "Instructions to George Yeardley," which includes the establishment of the ancient planter/headright system. Part of the purpose was to encourage settlers to emigrate to Virginia, which included building a college. These instructions come to be known as the Great Charter. 
 * November 24, 1618: George Yeardley is knighted by James VI and I

1619

 * c. May 1619: Ship George arrives with Doctor John Pott, Mistress Pott, and others
 * May c. 1619 a craftsmen strike begins because of a lack of voting rights 
 * July 21: Jamestown craftsmen strike ends
 * July 30, 1619: the first Virginia General Assembly convenes at the Jamestown Church. Dale's Code is no longer law. 
 * c. late August 1619: First Africans in Virginia are purchased from The White Lion and Treasurer as "indentured servants" for tobacco farming. This includes "Angela".
 * 1619 December 4: Captain John Woodlief (Woodleefe) and the Margaret (of Bristol) arrive at Berkeley Hundred with 36 settlers and 19 crewman (all males). By written order of the Virginia Company of London, the passengers held a Thanksgiving, and celebrated the same holiday in 1620 and 1621.

1620

 * 1620: 90-100 English women are enlisted as Tobacco brides to help the gender inequality and family gap of Jamestown
 * November 11, 1620: About 100 pilgrims arrive on the Mayflower to Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod

1621

 * October, 1621: the George arrives with Francis Wyatt (appointed to be Virginia governour) and George Sandys
 * c. November 1621: Nemattanew (known derisively as "Jack-of-a-Feather") is slain by settlers

1622

 * c. March 1622: Ship Seaflower containing relief supplies for Virginia, is accidentally sunk in Bermuda
 * Dec 20: Ship Abigail arrives with hungry, diseased passengers. The colony is reduced to 500 settlers over the winter.
 * Dec 20: Ship Abigail arrives with hungry, diseased passengers. The colony is reduced to 500 settlers over the winter.

1623

 * 1623: Captain William Norton arrives at the colony with skilled Italian glass workers
 * 1623: Conspiring with William Tucker, Dr John Pott feed poisoned wine to 200 natives, killing them in retaliation to the previous year's massacre

1624

 * May 24, 1624: the Virginia Company's royal charter is revoked due to overwhelming financial and political problems, making the Colony of Virginia a Crown colony (under royal authority) instead of a proprietary colony. The General Assembly is dissolved. 

1626

 * September 1626: Joan Wright is accused of witchcraft

1631

 * June 21 1631: John Smith died in London, England

1639

 * 1639 The King formally approves the restoration of the General Assembly.
 * c. November 1639: Richard Lee I arrives in Virginia

1640

 * July: John Punch, an indentured servant to Hugh Gwyn, is sentenced to a lifetime of slavery by the Virginia Governor's Council. Punch is considered the first legal sanctioning of slavery in the English colonies.

1644

 * April 1644: Opechancanough planned another coordinated attack, which resulted in the deaths of another 350 to 500 of the 8,000 settlers in outlying plantations.

1646

 * 1646: Opechancanough was captured, taken to Jamestown, and shot in the back by a guard--against orders--and killed

1649

 * 1649: Population estimates for Virginia is 15,000

1676

 * July 30, 1676: Declaration of the People of Virginia
 * Sept 18 1676: Jamestown is burned/torched by Bacon's Rebellion forces
 * October 1676: Nathaniel Bacon dies, marking a death knell to the rebellion
 * Legislature temporarily uses Middle Plantation as a statehouse

1693

 * 1693: College of William & Mary is established by royal charter

1697

 * 1697: Population estimate for the Virginia colony is 70,000

1698

 * 1698: Another fire is started by a prisoner awaiting execution. The conflagration destroys the prison and the statehouse. The legislature temporarily relocates to Middle Plantation and was able to meet in the new facilities of the College of William & Mary

1699

 * 1699: Colony capital permanently moves to Middle Plantation, which is renamed Williamsburg

1750

 * c. 1750: Jamestown ownership consolidated into two families via land sales: Travis and Ambler.