Jamestowne Is Founded

On May 14, 1607, a little over a hundred English colonists planted a fort on the James River and named their settlement Jamestowne, for King James I. It was the first permanent English settlement in North America — the seed of the future United States.

The name is spelled Jamestowne here on purpose. In 1607 English had no fixed spelling, so the settlement appears in the early records several ways — James Forte, James Towne, and James Cittie. The tidier modern spelling Jamestown only took hold later, as English spelling was gradually standardized across the 1600s and 1700s. That's also why the preserved site today is still called Historic Jamestowne, keeping the older spelling from the colony's own century.