Jamestown to a
series of communities along the James River and on the Eastern Shore.
Until 1611 only Jamestown had proven lasting. In this fourth year,
however, Kecoughtan (Elizabeth City) was established on a permanent
basis and Henrico was laid out. In 1613 the fourth of the Company
settlements was established at Bermuda which was to become Charles City.
For five years the center of population passed up river. The area in the
"Curls" of the James for a time was the preferred location. It looked as
if even the seat of government would be moved here where much official
business was transacted. In 1616 John Rolfe listed 6 settlements and
according to his report, some 68 per cent of the residents were in the
Henrico-Bermuda area.

Decline set in, in the upriver settlements, however, and the focus
returned again to the Jamestown area, aided, it seems, by the efforts of
Governor Samuel Argall. It was this 1617-19 period, too, that saw the
beginning of particular plantations which did much to populate the James
River basin as far as the falls. In 1619 at the time of the Assembly
meeting, there were eleven localities, or communities, that sent
representatives to Jamestown. Plantations continued to multiply until
the destruction of the massacre temporarily rolled back the number. For
a time the settlements were reduced to, perhaps, a dozen. Even the
massacre, however, could not long hold back what was becoming a tide.
The reoccupation of abandoned areas and the utilization of new land was
quickly the order of the day. In 1625 a total of 27 areas or communities
were reported. In this surge of expansion the center of population now
passed again from Jamestown and rested in the lower areas of the James.
In 1624 and 1625 Elizabeth City was indeed Virginia's most populous
community. In fact, early in 1625 the Elizabeth City group (Kecoughtan,
Buckroe, Newport News, etc.) had a greater population than did all of
the plantations above Jamestown. At this point "James Citty" and the
Island stood second with a population of 175 while Elizabeth City alone
had about 350.

The story of Virginia's first seventeen years was written all along the
banks of the James and much of it in the towns, forts, and plantations
that grew here. Each of them has an individual story and together they
give much of the story of Virginia's early years.

PASBEHEGH COUNTRY (1)

The country westward from Jamestown Island along the north shore of the
James