Charles City (or Charles Cittie as it was then called) was one of four incorporations established in the

Virginia Colony The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertGilbert (Saunders Family), Sir Humphrey" (histor ...

in 1619 by the proprietor, the

Virginia Company The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the object of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day Mai ...

.Foley, Louise Pledge Heath (1978, 2002 reprint). ''Early Families Along the James River'', p. vi. Genealogical Publishing Co. In 1634, under Royal authority, a portion became Charles City Shire,Long, Charles M. (1908)
''Virginia County Names: Two Hundred and Seventy Years of Virginia History''
p. 31. The Neale Publishing Company. later

Charles City County Charles City County is a county located in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated southeast of Richmond and west of Jamestown. It is bounded on the south by the James River and on the east by the Chickahominy River. The ...

History

Algonquian-speaking Native Americans migrated to the area from the north at least 800 years before the first Europeans arrived. It was home to the Chickahominy, Paspahegh and Weyanock tribes when the ''

Susan Constant ''Susan Constant'', possibly ''Sarah Constant'', captained by Christopher Newport, was the largest of three ships of the English Virginia Company (the others being ''Discovery'' and '' Godspeed'') on the 1606–1607 voyage that resulted in the fo ...

'', the '' Godspeed'' and the ''

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discove ...

'' entered the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in 1607 and sailed up the James River. By the time of the English colonization of the area, the greatest power in the Virginia Tidewater region was the Powhatan confederacy of thirty tribes."Colonization", ''James River Plantations'', National Park Service
/ref> The plantations and developments were divided into four "incorporations" or "citties" ''(sic)'', as they were called. These were Charles City,

Elizabeth City Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 18,629. Elizabeth City is the county seat and largest city of Pasquotank County. It is the cultural, economic and educ ...

, Henrico City, and James City. The latter included the seat of government for the colony at Jamestown. Each of the four "" extended across the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesap ...

, the main conduit of transportation of the era. In 1611 Kecoughtan (Elizabeth City) was established on a permanent basis and Henrico was laid out. In 1613 the fourth of the Company settlements was established as Bermuda City which was to become Charles City, named after

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to a ...

. While some settlers farmed the land, others made pitch, tar, potash, and charcoal for the Company.Hatch Jr., Charles E., ''The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607–1624'', The University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1957
/ref>

References

External links

"History", Charles City County
Populated places in colonial Virginia Charles City County, Virginia Populated places established in 1619 1619 establishments in Virginia {{Virginia-stub