Virginia Council of State

Governor's Council
Colony of Virginia
Seal of the Governor's Council circa 1725
Type
Type	Upper house
History
Established	1607
Disbanded	1776
Succeeded by	Senate of Virginia Supreme Court of Virginia
Seats	12
Meeting place
Jamestown, Virginia (1619–1699) Williamsburg, Virginia (1699–1776)

The Governor's Council (also known as the "Council of State" or simply "the Council") was the upper house of the colonial legislature (the House of Burgesses was the other house) in the Colony of Virginia from 1607 until the American Revolution in 1776. Consisting of 12 men who, after the 1630s were appointed by the British Sovereign, the Governor's Council also served as an advisory body to the Virginia Royal Governor and as the highest judicial body in the colony.

The Council consisted of no more than 12 men who served lifetime appointments to advise the governor and were, together with the governor, the highest court in the colony. Thus this body served as a legislative, executive and a judicial body. Modeled after the British House of Lords, the Governor's Council went through a definite evolution, as the Virginia colony grew.

During much of the colonial period, the governor was absentee and the lieutenant governor was the beneficiary of the council's advice. When both were absent, the longest serving member of the council, entitled the President of the council, would serve as acting governor.

During the Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell between 1652 and 1660, the House of Burgesses elected the members of the council. After the restoration of the monarchy, the Crown again appointed the council, typically from among the landed and wealthy Virginia planters.

Virginia was founded under a charter granted by King James I to the Virginia Company in 1606. In 1607, the company's governing board in London appointed a small group of seven men to manage the day-to-day affairs of the colony on their behalf, after the first settlers landed on the Virginia Peninsula. On April 26, 1607, the Council elected Captain Edward Maria Wingfield as its President, and he would later choose the site for the founding of the Jamestown settlement.