History of Virginia - Royal Colony

Royal Colony

In 1624, the Virginia Company's charter was revoked and the colony transferred to royal authority as a crown colony, but the elected representatives in Jamestown continued to exercise a fair amount of power. Under royal authority, the colony began to expand to the North and West with additional settlements. In 1630, under the governorship of John Harvey, the first settlement on the York River was founded. In 1632, the Virginia legislature voted to build a fort to link Jamestown and the York River settlement of Chiskiack and protect the colony from Indian attacks. This fort would become Middle Plantation and later Williamsburg, Virginia. In 1634, a palisade was built near Middle Plantation. This wall stretched across the peninsula between the York and James rivers and protected the settlements on the eastern side of the lower Peninsula from Indians. The wall also served to contain cattle.

Also in 1634, a new system of local government was created in the Virginia Colony by order of the King of England. Eight shires were designated, each with its own local officers. These shires were renamed as counties only a few years later. They were:

• Accomac (now Northampton County)
• Charles City Shire (now Charles City County)
• Charles River Shire (now York County)
• Elizabeth City Shire (existed as Elizabeth City County until 1952, when it was absorbed into the city of Hampton)
• Henrico (now Henrico County)
• James City Shire (now James City County)
• Warwick River Shire (existed as Warwick County until 1952, then the city of Warwick until 1958 when it was absorbed into the city of Newport News)
• Warrosquyoake Shire (now Isle of Wight County)

Of these, as of 2011, five of the eight original shires of Virginia are considered still extant in essentially their same political form (county), although some boundaries have changed. Also, including the earlier names of the cities (sic) in their names resulted in the source of some confusion, as that resulted in such seemingly contradictory names as "James City County" and "Charles City County".