I keep seeing references to Jamestown as the first permanent English settlement in America, but as I understand it Jamestown was abandoned and disappeared by 1750. Any place called Jamestown today is thus not really an unbroken continuation of the original settlement. If this is true, then Jamestown might properly be said to be the beginning of the permanent English occupation of America since there was never a time after its founding that the English did not have a settlement here, but it itself was not the first permanent settlement. It seems to me that honor still belong to Plymouth, Mass. which has continued from its foundation to the present day as a viable, vibrant city.
Jamestown is now an archeological site.
I think the idea is that it was the first time the English tried to set up a settlement as opposed to just sending exploration voyages. Clearly, no settlement is “premanent” if you wait long enough.
The oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the United States is said to be the Hopi pueblo of Old Oraibi, Arizona. If you want to racially discriminate, the oldest continually inhabited European-founded settlement is St. Augustine, Florida.
I’d go a little further than this and say that it was the first attempt at permanent settlement that worked for any extended length of time.
The whole Roanoke experiment of the 1580s was more than just an “exploration voyage.” Raleigh intended Roanoke as both a colony and an imperial outpost that would keep an eye on Spanish activities in Florida and the Caribbean. But the venture only lasted a few years.
I’m sure you’re correct. But the OP asked specifically about settlement carried out by the English.
You’re right. I forgot about Roanoke.
Johanna: Spain was leaps and bounds ahead of Enlgand in terms of settling the New World at that time. The OP speaks specifically about English settlements.
Technically after the Treaty of Paris 01/14/1784 there were no more “English” Settlements on the Eastern Seabord of the 13 colonies … so either Jamestown works as the oldest 1607-1784 or the answer is the first Canadian settlement – but at some point even that became Canadian and not “English”
Newfoundland was first settled by the English in 1620 and didn’t join Canada until 1949.
By 1619, a year before Plymouth Colony was settled, there were eleven settlements in Virginia, enough that a colonial assembly was organized.
Which of those eleven are still around?
Elizabeth City, which was merged with the city of Hampton in 1952.
Even if Jamestown itself didn’t endure, it was the first step in the colonization of Virginia, and Virginia DID endure.
Since Virginia WAS a permanent colony, it seems reasonable to credit Jamestown as being the first permanent British settlement in North America.
But according to the Elizabeth City, North Carolina web site, even though a county was created in the early 17th century, the town was not created until 1793. I don’t mean to be petty, but acknowedging that Virginia is the oldest continually occupied English colony in the U.S.A., I am still trying to find out what is the oldest site in what is now the United States that was settled by real, live English people and which has since that date remained without a break a populated, living city or town up to the present day.
Elizabeth City, NC and the old Elizabeth City, VA are two entirely different places.
I live in New Kent County, which was a part of one of the eight original shires in VA. It has been continuously enhabited by “English people” since 1611.
astorian:
Although you state that:
As mhendo noted:
I’d suggest you have a look at the book**Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony[/B[ by Lee Miller. I’ve mentioned it before on these Boards, and it’s a good read:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0142002283/qid=1112622297/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/104-9085457-2742316?v=glance&s=books
Even if you don’t buy all of Miller’s conjectures, Roanoke was definitely a serious attempt at colonization, and prior to Jamestown. In fact, the Roanoke affair was used to justify Jamestown and many of the English actions.
Both the west and east shores of the James River in Virginia have been permanently and continuously settled by English-speaking people since the 1610s, before the Mayflower landed in Massachusetts. Modern-day Hampton, at the mouth of the James River on Chesapeake Bay, is an example of one of those continuously occupied settlements.
I, for one, am tired of all those Johnny-come-lately Mayflower descendants putting on airs.
This sentiment (or at least something pretty close to it) is still held by many of the oldest families in my part of the world. For instance, while I was Planning Director for New Kent I recommended that the BoS give approval to a telecommunications tower along I-64. It was on property owned by the Clarke family. Ms. Clarke made this statement during the public hearing - “My ancestors received this property as a land grant from the English monarchy, and if you think you’re going to put a communication tower on it, you’re sadly mistaken.” End of discussion.
I attend church at St. Peter’s Episcopal, which was constructed in 1700. The parish is older than that. I went to a confirmation celebration at another church that was built about 1740 and in a parish that wasn’t established until about 1735. When I told one of my older fellow-St. Peter’s attendees about my visit she said, “Oh, my family has never had much to do with those new parishes.”