Program Information

Series: Jamestown and Bermuda: Virginia Company Colonies
Duration: 00:03:20
Year Produced: 2007
Description:

When the Virginia Company incorporated the Bermuda Islands under their 1612 charter they sent out a group of 60 settlers and a new governor to establish the first settlement there. By about the time that Virginia came around to holding its first general assembly in the church at Jamestown, Bermuda a year later in 1620 held its first General Assembly, as well, but they had only been incorporated for five years.

For more information visit: http://historyisfun.org

Transcript

Lead: Jamestown, Virginia, settled in 1607, was the first permanent English colony in America. The second was not far behind.

N.E.: “When the Virginia Company incorporated the Bermuda Islands under their 1612 charter they sent out a group of 60 settlers and a new governor to establish the first settlement there.”

Intro: I’m Steve Clark with Jamestown and Bermuda: Virginia Company Colonies. Sponsored by Jamestown Settlement, a living history museum near Williamsburg, Virginia.

Content: Following the shipwreck on Bermuda of the Sea Venture, a supply ship traveling to Virginia, the island was claimed as an English colony. Nancy Egloff, historian at Jamestown Settlement says the knowledge gained by The Virginia Company in setting up Jamestown helped the first Bermuda settlers in 1612 to be better organized right from the start. Soon, though, Company officials decided it would be better to incorporate the new colony under its own separate charter.

N.E.: “So in 1615 many of the same gentlemen who had been leaders and supporters of the Virginia Company established the Bermuda Company and got another charter from the King. A new governor was sent out, Daniel Tucker, who actually had been a settler in Jamestown and was sent to Bermuda with definite instructions as to how to establish government there.”

S.C.: Based on Tuckers instructions, land divisions began almost immediately, something that didn’t occur in Virginia until the late 16 teens. The land in Bermuda was broken up into tribes named after the 8 major shareholders of the new Bermuda Company. The new colony advanced quickly in other ways, as well.

N.E.: “By about the time that Virginia came around to holding its first general assembly in the church at Jamestown, Bermuda a year later in 1620 held its first General Assembly, as well, but they had only been incorporated for five years. There was a governor who had a council; two burgesses from each of these tribes were sent to the church in St Georges, to sit as a General Assembly to pass laws for the new little colony in Bermuda.”

S.C.: As the result of a variety of problems in the Jamestown colony, King James the First pulled the Virginia Company charter in 1624, making it a royal colony. The Bermuda Company managed to keep its independent charter for another 60 years

N.E.: “The Bermuda Charter was not pulled until 1684, and the problem then was that agriculture just was not making it for the colony, that maritime enterprises… shipbuilding, privateering, salt production… really were the pull for Bermuda. The Bermuda Company saw the writing on the wall. The Crown pulled the charter and Bermuda became a royal colony in 1684.

S.C.: Today, Bermuda is governed by a premier and a governor, who is the Queen’s representative. Laws are passed by Bermuda’s bicameral Parliament and interpreted by its Supreme Court.

Conclusion: To learn more, visit Jamestown Settlement or history is fun dot org

Virginia Standards

4th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » VS.3
7th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » CE.2
12th Grade SOLs » History-Social Science » GOVT.2