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In addition to their human cargo, the poultry and fruit acquired in theWest Indies, the clothing, household gear, and other possessions of thepassengers, the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery had a largethough imponderable cargo of English laws, customs and religion. Thecolonists had left England, neither driven out nor seeking escape, butto found a new England in a new world.
Though the seat of government was at "King James HisTowne," the natural curiosity to explore and the economic necessityfor means of livelihood caused settlements to spring up fartherand farther away. Despite the fact that the colonists werein a region where rivers and numerous streams afforded easytransportation interrupted only for short periods by ice in winter,attendance at court in Jamestown was burdensome.
The Four Corporations
By 17 June 1617, Governor Samuel Argall had establishedthe four great divisions of the colony, namely: "the incorporationsand parishes of James City, Charles City, Henrico andKikotan" (later Elizabeth City). The Eastern Shore settlementswere not included in this division.
Each of the incorporations mentioned above and the EasternShore contained one or more boroughs or settlements. Elevenof the settlements in the four incorporations were representedby two Burgesses each, in the first General Assembly. This, thefirst legislative assembly of English speaking people in the Western[2]hemisphere, convened on 30 July 1619 in the church atJamestown. Itself based on the English Parliament as a model,it became the model followed by all succeeding British coloniesincluding Australia. The colonial assembly next in age to Virginia'sis that of Bermuda established in 1620. In the Journalsof the House of Burgesses, the names of the Burgesses for the1619 Assembly are arranged by the cities and plantations theyrepresented. In the Journal of the second Assembly that is extant,1623/24, for the first and only time, the plantations aregrouped under the corporations of which they were a part, exceptEastern Shore, which, as has been noted, was a separateentity.
In 1621, a charter from the Company confirmed former grantsand provided "that the Governor should call the General Assemblyonce a year, and initiate the policy of the form of government,laws, customs, manner of trial and other administrationof justice used in England." Governor Wyatt at the same timewas ordered to make arrangements for "dividing the colony intocities, boroughs, etc., ... and to appoint proper times for administration... and law suits." William Stith in his History ofVirginia states: "Inferior courts were therefore in the beginningof the year 1621 appointed in convenient places to relieve theGovernor and Council of the vast burthen of business and torender justice more c