History of Virginia Beach - European Arrivals

European Arrivals

The Spanish sailed past the Chesapeake bay and landed in Cincoteague (Virginia) in 1524. Spanish explorers also mapped the Cape Henry coast. The English soon followed with an exploration party under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh. His men explored the area between Cape Henry and Cape Lookout in July and August 1584. The first English colony was established by John White on Roanoke Island. However, the colony disappeared, gaving rise to the legend of a mysterious Lost Colony. It took more than a dozen years before England sent another expedition to colonize the area, but this attempt failed as well.

The expedition that founded the first permanent settlement set sail on December 19, 1606 from Blackwall, England on three ships commanded by Captain Christopher Newport. It consisted of 105 men and boys sponsored by the proprietary London Company section of the Virginia Company. They had an unusually long voyage of 144 days. On April 26, 1607, they made their first landfall at Cape Henry, in the northeastern part of today's independent city of Virginia Beach, a point where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. It was named in honor of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King James I of England. However the settlers left the area under orders from England to seek a site further inland which would be more sheltered from ships of competing European countries.

Today, the site of their "First Landing" is within the boundaries of Joint Expeditionary Base East, a Navy installation used for training by the Army, U.S. Army, and Marines. A memorial cross near the landing site and the historic Cape Henry Light are accessible to the general public. First Landing State Park (formerly Seashore State Park) nearby was named to commemorate this event.

In addition to the landing site itself, a nearby settlement called Henry Town near the mouth of the Lynnhaven River was first described by name in a 1613 letter by the Virginia's lieutenant governor, Samuel Argall, who wrote of sending a fishing ship "to Henries Towne for the reliefe of such men as were there." Other extant documents mention several forts at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay as early as 1610, possibly including Henry Town. These records indicate that settlement at Henry Town was contemporary with the settlement at Jamestown. However, most of the archaeological finds at the Henry Town site date from the middle rather than the early 17th century. Some discoveries suggest that the site is connected to Adam Thoroughgood's nearby tobacco plantation, which dates to about 1635.