The Founding of James Fort, May 14, 1607

By Judith Warrington, JRA Communications Coordinator

After more than a three-month sea voyage, with stops in the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico for provisions, 103 men and boys and 39 crew members , representatives of the entrepreneurial Virginia Company of London, made landfall on the shore of what would become Virginia. They named their landing site Cape Henry, in honor of their king’s eldest son, Henry, Prince of Wales. It was April 26, 1607. But this was only their first stop for the weary Company. The windswept shore gave little protection from the elements or the native inhabitants.

Sealed orders from the Virginia Company were opened and read, and the group was directed to find an island for their settlement site, a location that was both secure and defensible. After exploring the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and not finding a suitable location, the group’s three ships, Discovery, Susan Constant and Godspeed, sailed up river. About 60 miles inland from the mouth of the Bay, a swampy island on the river’s north shore offered the best location for the construction of a fort that could be easily defended against attacks by enemy ships. (The possibility of an attack by either the Dutch, the French, or the especially the Spanish, was perceived to be as great a threat as an attack from the indigenous population.) As it turned out, attacks by mosquitoes were to take the biggest toll on the settlers.

On May 14, 1607, on this swampy island, James Fort was founded. The settlement and the river were named for King James I of England. James Fort became Jamestown and served as the capital of the new colony until 1699 when the colonial capital was relocated to Williamsburg. Today, 404 years after the Virginia Company decided to build a fort on the James River, America’s Founding River continues to spark the imagination and admiration of those of us who live along its banks.

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