Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in North America and the first of the thirteen original colonies, with a Spanish mission established near the York River in 1570 and a permanent English settlement established at Jamestown in 1607 by England’s Virginia Company of London under its original charter. In 1609, King James I granted a second charter that increased Virginia’s territory to its maximum size, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Following the American Revolution, Virginia relinquished her northern and western territories, which eventually were divided into individual states. In 1788, Virginia was admitted to the Union as the 10th state.
