The Virginia Company of London, chartered April 10, 1606, founded Jamestown and sustained Virginia from 1607 to 1624. Jamestown became the first permanent colony of the English people, the birthplace of Virginia and of the United States, with the settlement established on May 13, 1607. Representative government in America began here when the First House of Burgesses assembled on July 30, 1619. In 1606, the London Council for Virginia advised the colony that prosperity and success required unity for the good of country and self and service to and fear of God, the giver of all goodness, for every plantation not planted by the Heavenly Father would be rooted out.
