England was still a small country, in 1606, although she was becoming a great commercial nation. Her sea masters had sailed around the globe, and her sailors had defeated Spain less than two decades earlier, in what was possibly the greatest naval battle in history. But, England was geographically and politically isolated, and there was real danger if the nation did not acquire her own markets and colonial possessions by which a profitable foreign trade would enable her to build ships and train sailors, thus fortifying the island, which could not be protected, except by strong ships and able seamen. Although Englishmen had claimed regions during their explorations, they now risked forfeiting those regions by England's delay in colonizing them. Sir Walter Cope expressed the English situation wisely in 1610: "The eyes of all Europe are looking upon our endeavors to spread the gospel among the heathen people of Virginia, to plant an English nation there and to settle a trade in those parts."

On April 10, 1606, not long after England made peace with Spain, King James I granted a charter to a company of English merchants and proprietors to begin colonization of one such previously claimed region, Virginia, which had been named for the virgin queen of England, Elizabeth I. The company of investors granted the charter was called the Virginia Company, and it would function as a governing body, representing all the merchants and proprietors who invested in the adventure. It was a joint-stock company, the forerunner of the corporations of today; an enterprise that pooled resources as a means of financing the expensive venture of establishing settlements of people so far away from their native land. In return, the investors, both those who remained in England and those who ventured to Virginia as settlers, expected to divide the profits from any and all resources discovered in Virginia. Once granted the charter, this company became responsible for recruiting the people who were to settle in America.

The Virginia Company was actually made up of two companies, the London Company and the Plymouth Company. Both were to plant colonies in Virginia, but the second company to send settlers was instructed not to settle closer than 100 miles of the first colony planted. The reason behind this particular instruction was to prevent conflict between the two settlements.

On November 20, 1606, further instructions in the charter were issued for the colonies to be planted in Virginia. The government of each colony was placed in the hands of a resident council of thirteen which was subject to instructions from a joint royal council of thirteen in England. The resident councils were authorized to elect their own presiding officers. To remove and appoint a successor for the president of either resident council, the majority of that resident council had to agree to do so.

The London Company, which included the charter petitioners Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Haklyuyt and Edward Maria Wingfield, was the first company to settle its colony in Virginia, a colony which was named James Towne after the English king at the time of its establishment. The London Company, its members, and its particular settlement, the Colony of Virginia, will be the subject of the following segments of "Virginia: Her History and Her Families."