A Brief History of Norfolk, Virginia

In 1606, a group of English investors formed the Virginia Company of London, to try to establish a permanent colony in the New World. In 1607, 104 men and boys sponsored by the Company landed at what is now Cape Henry in Virginia Beach. They then traveled upriver to establish Jamestown, the country's first permanent English settlement. Virginia became England's first Royal Colony in 1624, when the now-bankrupt Virginia Company was dissolved by King James I. Also in 1624, Thomas Willoughby was granted 500 acres of land in what is now the Ocean View section of Norfolk. Twelve years later, under King Charles I, Willoughby received a grant of another 200 acres in the present downtown Norfolk, part of which would become the original "Norfolk Towne." Norfolk's importance as a port began in 1680, and in 1682, the "Towne of Norfolk" was established.