Virginia Company of London was a commercial enterprise established on 10 April 1606 that governed the colony of Virginia from 1609 to 1624. The Society of Adventurers, or investors, was patented to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and their associates. The company, headquartered in London, was a body of stockholders who acquired interest in the company by paying money, rendering service, or settling on land in Virginia. Investors had to raise funds, furnish supplies, and send out expeditions. The company was presided over by a treasurer and conducted all of its business through its regularly elected officers or through special committees. The governing council in England was subordinate to the king regarding affairs in Virginia. Each colony was to be governed by a council in London and in day-to-day matters by a local council. The Virginia Company of London and the Virginia Company of Plymouth were patented to settle between 34 and 45 degrees north latitude. The London Company was allowed to settle between 34 and 41 degrees north latitude and the Plymouth Company, between 38 and 45 degrees north latitude. Settlements could not be within 100 miles of each other in the overlapping area of 38 to 41 degrees.
From 1606 to 1609, the private investors had little influence on affairs or commercial matters in Virginia. Business management was left to a joint-stock company, and the storehouse was controlled by a treasurer and two clerks elected by the president and council in the colony. In 1609, a second charter was granted to the company, converting it to a corporation and permitting public sale of stock. The entrepreneurs, with Sir Thomas Smith as treasurer, retained commercial responsibilities, assumed governmental functions, and reduced royal supervision. This new charter allowed the company to appoint a governor for the colony and the council in Virginia became an advisory body. The council of the company in London was chosen by the investors to act as a standing committee.
Another charter in 1612 strengthened the authority of the company, making it overlord of a proprietary province. Major decisions of the company were to be prepared at the quarter courts, which were stockholder meetings held four times per year. Extending over a period of seven years, a system for the joint management of land and exemption from English customs duties promised dividends to the investors and support for the planters. There was also enacted a running lottery that collected auxiliary money for the settlement and jurisdiction over newly discovered Bermuda. By 1617, many indentured servants fulfilled their obligations to the Virginia Company. Those settlers who had arrived before 1616 got one hundred acres fee simple.
In 1619 the Virginia Company adopted its Orders and Constitutions that were intended to ensure the legality of action and were read at one quarter court each year. The company allowed private landholding in order to encourage settlement. An investor might also obtain stock within three years by paying the passage for settlers and peopling his land. Emigration to Virginia by laborers, artisans, and apprentices was encouraged to attain production of grain, silk, and industries other than tobacco. A representative assembly was also enacted to offer settlers a voice in policy.
Between 1619 and 1622, factions developed within the company as a result of the administration of Samuel Argall, deputy governor of the colony. He exploited the lands and the trade of the company for private benefit. This led to the formation of an administration under Lord Cavendish, John Ferrar, Nicholas Ferrar, Sir Edwin Sandys, and the earl of Southampton with unconstructive changes. The Sandys-Southampton party supported the parliamentary opposition in England, and thus the king and Sandys became bitter political rivals. An Indian massacre in 1622 added to the colony's problems.
On 17 April 1623, a committee headed by Lord Cavendish was summoned before the Privy Council to defend the company against grievances. On 9 May 1623, the Privy Council announced that a commission would be appointed to inquire into the state of Virginia and Somers Island plantation. The commission found the colony had been in a state of disorder since the massacre by the Indians; there was quarreling among the factions of the company and masses of unprepared and unprovisioned settlers that Sir Edwin Sandys had sent to the new land. The king also wanted to maximize his revenues from customs duties on tobacco, even though he despised the commodity. On 24 May 1624, the company was dissolved, terminating in bankruptcy, and on 15 July, a commission was appointed to replace the Virginia Company of London and establish the first royal colony in America. The king sought the advice of the company on questions affecting the government of the colony, but Sandys was unsuccessful in his attempt to secure a new patent. Its function as a trading organization ceased.
Bibliography
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Craven, Wesley Frank. Dissolution of the Virginia Company: The Failure of a Colonial Experiment. Gloucester, Mass.: P. Smith, 1964.
———. The Virginia Company of London, 1606–1624. Williamsburg: Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation, 1957.
Morton, Richard Lee. Colonial Virginia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960.
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