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DOCUMENTARY SOURCE BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY

No. I.

First Charter of Virginia

April 10/20, 1606

THE region included in the Virginia grant was claimed by Spain, but the close of the war between Spain and England, in 1604, left the latter free to extend the area of its occupation in America. Various plans for settlement and trade were brought forward soon after the return of Weymouth, in July, 1605. A petition for a charter, signed by Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Hakluyt, and others, was favorably considered by James I., and in April, 1606, the charter passed the seals. The first draft of the charter, accompanying the petition, was probably drawn by Sir John Popham, lord chief justice, but the final form was the work of Sir Edward Coke, attorneygeneral, and Sir John Dodderidge, solicitor-general. Royal orders and instructions for the government of the two colonies and the conduct of their affairs were issued Nov. 20/30 and Dec. 10/20, 1606. An ordinance and constitution of March 9/19, 1607, increased the membership of the council and enlarged its authority.

REFERENCES. Text in Stith's History of Virginia (Sabin's ed., 1865), Appendix I. Invaluable documentary material for the early history of Virginia, to 1616, is set forth in Brown's Genesis of the United States; see also the same author's First Republic in America, 1-71. Important contemporary accounts are: John Smith's A True Relation (Deane's ed., 1866, with notes), and General Historie (Arber's reprint); Wingfield's A Discourse of Virginia (Deane's ed., with notes, in Archæologia Americana, IV., 67-163); and A True Declaration of the Estate of the Colonie in Virginia (in Force's Tracts, III.). See further: Neill's Virginia Company; Sainsbury's Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, I.

I. JAMES, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. WHEREAS our loving and well-disposed Subjects, Sir Thomas Gates, and Sir George Somers, Knights, Richard Hackluit, Clerk, Prebendary of Westminster, and Edward-Maria Wingfield, Thomas Hanham, and Ralegh Gilbert, Esqrs. William Parker, and George Popham, Gentlemen, and divers others of our loving Subjects, have been humble Suitors unto us, that We would vouchsafe unto them our Licence, to make Habitation, Plantation, and to deduce a Colony of sundry of our People into that Part of America, commonly

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