Colony of Virginia

The Colony of Virginia was chartered on April 10, 1606, by King James I to the Virginia Company of London, a joint-stock company, and first settled at Jamestown after landing at Cape Henry on April 26, 1607. Virginia's House of Burgesses, the first elected legislative assembly in English America, was established on July 30, 1619. After the Virginia Company's charter was revoked in 1624, the colony was transferred to direct royal authority and administered thereafter as a crown colony. Virginia declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1775, becoming the Commonwealth of Virginia and later one of the thirteen original United States, ratifying the federal Constitution on June 25, 1788. As a colony under direct crown administration for most of its existence, it is grouped here among Kingdoms and Principalities, the closest available classification for a monarchical dependency pending a dedicated colonial-provinces category.