The Oldest County In America
James City County, Virginia, has governed itself since 1634. That was the year King Charles I divided his new colony into eight shires, naming the first after Jamestown, the first English settlement in the region. Situated between the James and York rivers, the county was not only home to the original fort where English America began, but it also played an important role in the Revolutionary War. All of which makes the oldest county in the country one of the most fun to explore.
Establishing James City County
In 1634, King Charles I ordered the Virginia colony split into eight shires, the English term for units of local government. Relabeled soon after as "counties," they consisted of James City, Henrico, Charles City, Elizabeth City, Warwick River, Warrosquyoake, Charles River, and Accawmack. One of four corporations laid out in 1619, James Cittie soon became James City Shire before eventually being changed to James City County.
What separates James City from the others, though, is the fact that it was already well established by the time Charles ordered the shires into being. Governed English settlement had started in Jamestown in 1607, and the colony's seat of government remained there until 1699, making it the oldest continuous English civil administration anywhere in the United States.
That original shire was, however, far larger than the county is today. Back then, its boundaries included what is now Surry County across the James River, part of Charles City County, and some of New Kent County. Now a more manageable 144 square miles, its seat is Williamsburg, which ironically isn't part of the county. This is down to the fact that Virginia's independent cities are set up as separate jurisdictions from the counties that surround them.
The county also claims another first. The elected representatives sent from each settlement in the colony, then known as burgesses, met in the church at Jamestown on July 30, 1619, to form the very first representative assembly in English America.
The Island Where English America Began
James City County's founding settlement occupies a marshy island in the James River, and everything at Jamestown Island starts with a question that took three centuries to answer. Had the original fort washed away? Preservation Virginia, which acquired 22.5 acres of the island in 1893, launched the Jamestown Rediscovery project in April 1994 to settle the matter.
Within three digging seasons, the team had proof that the location of James Fort was still on dry land. Archaeologists at what's now called Historic Jamestowne have since excavated 80 percent of the triangular fort from 1607, as well as 50 percent of the five-sided version built in 1608, in the process recovering three million artifacts. The brick church tower on the site's shoreline is the only structure from 17th-century Jamestown still standing.
A mile up the road, Jamestown Settlement opened in 1957 for the colony's 350th anniversary. It now features replicas of the colonial fort and Paspahegh Town, a Powhatan community. The centerpiece is the trio of ships moored on the river, the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. The originals on which they're based left London on December 20, 1606, landing 105 passengers on the site on May 13, 1607.
A Park Named Freedom
Three and a half months before Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, British and American forces met near the northwest tip of Jamestown Island. On July 6, 1781, 900 Americans under the Marquis de Lafayette and Brigadier General Anthony Wayne ran into 5,000 British troops near Green Spring Plantation, the 17th-century estate of royal governor Sir William Berkeley.
Badly outnumbered and expecting only a rear guard, the Americans fixed bayonets and advanced rather than retreating, which bought enough time for an orderly withdrawal. Historians describe the Battle of Green Spring as the largest open-field engagement of the Revolutionary War fought in Virginia, and it was the last significant land action in the state before the siege at Yorktown, which ended on October 19, 1781.
The park takes its name from what happened here in 1803, when William Ludwell Lee left a will freeing the people he had enslaved and directing that homes be built for them on a tract called the Hot Water. Families lived on the land until 1850. Three cabins have been reconstructed from archaeological and documentary research, each furnished to the period and each showing a different level of building skill and household wealth.
The Upper County
The northern half of the county's history is tied to that of the railroad. When the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway pushed its line east along the peninsula in 1882, farms that had previously been cut off from markets benefited tremendously. The rail stop at Burnt Ordinary was renamed Toano, a Native American word meaning high ground, and it became the commercial hub of the upper county area.
With the railway came a wave of settlers, among them many Norwegian Americans from the Midwest. They named their new community Norge, the Norwegian spelling of Norway, and you can still see the Norge Depot, built in 1907. Hickory Neck Church just north of Toano is another historic site worth seeing. Built in stages from 1733 and extended in 1774, it served as a military hospital during the Revolution and later as a school.
County Trails
The nearly 52-mile-long Virginia Capital Trail connects several key corners of the county with Richmond, the state capital. Fittingly, its zero-mile marker stands next to Jamestown Settlement, making it an ideal jumping-off point to explore the area.
The Greensprings Interpretive Trail loops 3.5 miles through beaver ponds, wetlands, and woodland as part of the Virginia Birding Trail, where more than 200 bird species have been recorded. From the trail you can look out over Mainland Farm, operating without interruption since 1609. James City County now owns the 214-acre property, restricting its use to agriculture and forestry.
By far the best way to explore James City County, though, is via the Colonial Parkway. This 23-mile National Park Service road was opened in 1957 to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the landing. It links Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown, without a single billboard or traffic light. Much of its length runs through James City County, with long stretches of river frontage and marsh. The Historic Triangle Shuttle covers the same three points seasonally at no charge, which makes a car optional for visitors staying in the middle of it all.
Four Centuries and Still Going
No other county in the United States can claim the unbroken line of local government that James City County can. Established as a county in 1634 but an important part of English America since the first colonists arrived in 1607, its longevity is a testament to the generations who have lived here and cemented its reputation as the oldest county in America.
