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King James I of England supported the founding of Jamestown it was the Virginia Company that financed the settlement and ran it.
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The ships that arrived to establish the Jamestown Colony were the Discovery, the Godspeed, and the Susan Constant.
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The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts 13 years after Jamestown was established.
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Most of the settlers that arrived at Jamestown were looking for gold. These men didn't know much about surviving by fishing, farming, or hunting, and had a very difficult time in the first several years adapting to the new way of life. A resupply ship brought much needed supplies the first January, and the local Powhatan Native Americans helped them as well.
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The Virginia Company was financed by private investors who expected a return on their money. This return was expected to come from a commodity - which was found in 1612 when John Rolfe, a colonist, discovered the value in tobacco.
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John Rolfe married Pocahontas which brought peace between the Jamestown colonists and local Native American tribes.
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Between 1608 and 1624 approximately 6,000 people made Jamestown their home. Only 3,400 of them survived.
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Virginia became a royal colony in 1624 when King James revoked the Virginia Company's charter.
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In 1634 King Charles I divided the Colony of Virginia into eight counties. Jamestown became part of James City Shire.
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In 1676 Jamestown burned during Bacon's Rebellion. It was rebuilt but the Virginia legislature had to move elsewhere until it was ready.
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In 1699 the Virginia's colony's capitol was moved to Williamsburg, following another fire at the statehouse in Jamestown.
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Once the capitol moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg Jamestown started to disappear.
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Much of Jamestown was farmed by the Ambler and Travis families in the mid-1700s.
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David Bullock bought Jamestown from the families Travis and Ambler in 1831.
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During the American Civil War much of Jamestown was destroyed.
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Jamestown was purchased in 1892 by Edward Barney and his wife. They donated more than 22 acres of land to Preservation Virginia, including the church tower built in 1639.
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In 2007 Jamestown celebrated the 400 year anniversary of the settlement. President George W. Bush and Queen Elizabeth II visited the site.
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The museum at Jamestown is called the Nathalie P. and Allan M. Voorhees Archaerium and contains artefacts of the original colonists.
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The Smithsonian Institution also featured an exhibition of artefacts from James Fort. The exhibition is called Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake.
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