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In 1606, James I granted a royal charter to the Virginia Company of London to settle colonists in North America. After the first permanent English settlement was established later that James, located between the 14th Street Bridge in modern downtown Richmond and the Pony Pasture. The settlement was made at this location as it is the highest navigable site along the James River.

In 1611, Sir Thomas Dale, the new Governor of the Jamestown Colony, organized an expedition and established a settlement below the falls called “Henricus.” The first hospital in North America was built here and was home to Pocahontas. Read the rest of this entry »

By the early eighteenth century, the population of the area was still below 200. In 1730, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed the Warehouse Act, which required inspectors to grade tobacco at 40 different locations. This led to much development at the Falls of the James. Seven years later, in 1737, William Mayo laid out the original street plan for the town of Richmond, on land provided by Colonel William Byrd II of nearby Westover Plantation. The name came from Richmond, England.

In 1741, St. John’s Church was built in the present day neighborhood of Church Hill, the oldest neighborhood in the city, overlooking downtown Richmond, Shockoe Bottom and Shockoe Slip. Richmond was chartered as a town in 1742. Read the rest of this entry »