Colonial Virginia
| Colony of Virginia | ||||||||||||
| Colony of England (1607–1707) Colony of Great Britain (1707–1776) |
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Motto En dat Virginia quintum (English, "Behold, Virginia gives the fifth") |
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| Languages | English, Siouan languages, Iroquoian languages, Algonquian languages | |||||||||||
| Religion | Anglicanism | |||||||||||
| Government | Constitutional monarchy | |||||||||||
| • | 1760–1776 | George III (last) | ||||||||||
| Governor | ||||||||||||
| • | 1607 | Edward Wingfield (first) | ||||||||||
| • | 1771–1775 | Lord Dunmore (last) | ||||||||||
| Legislature | House of Burgesses (1619–1776) | |||||||||||
| History | ||||||||||||
| • | Founding | 1607 | ||||||||||
| • | Became Royal Colony | 1624 | ||||||||||
| • | Independence | 1776 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Pound sterling | |||||||||||
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| Today part of |
 United States
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The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed proprietary attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1583, and Roanoke Island by Sir Walter Raleigh in the late 1580s.
Rather than individuals such as Gilbert or Raleigh, the founder of the new colony was the Virginia Company, with the first two settlements in Jamestown on the banks of the James River and Popham Colony on the Kennebec River in modern-day Maine, both in 1607. The Popham colony quickly failed, and due to famine during 1609-1610, disease, and conflict with local Native American tribes (the Powhatan Confederacy) in the first two years, Jamestown was also at the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies in 1610. Tobacco became Virginia's first profitable export, the production of which had a significant impact on the society and settlement patterns. In 1624, the Virginia Company's charter was revoked by King James I, and the Virginia colony was transferred to royal authority as a crown colony.
After the English Civil War in the mid-17th century, the Virginia colony was nicknamed "The Old Dominion" by King Charles II for its perceived loyalty to the English monarchy during the era of the Commonwealth of England.. The colony seal stated from Latin, 'Behold, Virginia gives the fifth", with Virginia claimed as the fifth English dominion after England, France, Scotland and Ireland.
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Wikipedia