In the press of such demands the London Company passed away. In 1609 under
new letters patent was born the Virginia Company.
The members and shareholders in this corporation touch through and through
the body of England at that day. First names upon the roll come Robert
Cecil, Thomas Howard, Henry Wriothesley, William Herbert, Henry Clinton,
Richard Sackville, Thomas Cecil, Philip Herbert--Earls of Salisbury,
Suffolk, Southampton, Pembroke, Lincoln, Dorset, Exeter, and Montgomery.
Then follow a dozen peers, the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, a hundred
knights, many gentlemen, one hundred and ten merchants, certain physicians
and clergymen, old soldiers of the Continental wars, sea-captains and
mariners, and a small host of the unclassified. In addition shares were
taken by fifty-six London guilds or industrial companies. Here are the
Companies of the Tallow and Wax Chandlers, the Armorers and Girdlers,
Cordwayners and Carpenters, Masons, Plumbers, Founders, Poulterers, Cooks,
Coopers, Tylers and Brick Layers, Bowyers and Vinters, Merchant Taylors,
Blacksmiths and Weavers, Mercers, Grocers, Turners, Gardeners, Dyers,
Scriveners, Fruiterers, Plaisterers, Brown Bakers, Imbroiderers, Musicians,
and many more.
The first Council appointed by the new charter had fifty-two members,
fourteen of whom sat in the English House of Lords, and twice that number
in the Commons. Thus was Virginia well linked to Crown and Parliament.
This great commercial company had sovereign powers within Virginia.
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