 Several European expeditions , including a group of Spanish Jesuits , explored the Chesapeake Bay during the 16th century . In 1583 , Queen Elizabeth I of England granted Walter Raleigh a charter to plant a colony north of Spanish Florida . In 1584 , Raleigh sent an expedition to the Atlantic coast of North America . The name " Virginia " may have been suggested then by Raleigh or Elizabeth , perhaps noting her status as the " Virgin Queen , " and may also be related to a native phrase , " Wingandacoa , " or name , " Wingina . " Initially the name applied to the entire coastal region from South Carolina to Maine , plus the island of Bermuda . Later , subsequent royal charters modified the Colony 's boundaries . The London Company was incorporated as a joint stock company by the proprietary Charter of 1606 , which granted land rights to this area . The Company financed the first permanent English settlement in the " New World " , Jamestown . Named for King James I , it was founded in May 1607 by Christopher Newport . In 1619 , colonists took greater control with an elected legislature called the House of Burgesses . With the bankruptcy of the London Company in 1624 , the settlement was taken into royal authority as an English crown colony . 
