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In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to start a settlement. On May 13 they picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America.
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The first settlers in the state now known as Massachusetts were the Pilgrims. They arrived in Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620 after separating from the Anglican church and fleeing England, creating the Mayflower compact as the foundational set of rules for self-government in the New World.
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New Hampshire's first permanent European settlement began in 1623. In the wake of native populations, largely decimated by European diseases, English traders and fishermen settled at Odiorne Point in present-day Rye, and on Dover Point.
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In 1664, the English took possession of New Netherland from the Dutch, renaming it New York.
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Their landing on March 25, 1634 at St. Clement's Island in southern Maryland, is commemorated by the state each year on that date as Maryland Day. This was the site of the first Catholic mass in the Colonies, with Father Andrew White leading the service.
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Connecticut Colony was one of the 13 Colonies that declared independence from Great Britain. The colony started in 1636 and developed the first written constitution in America, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. Puritan minister Thomas Hooker is recognized as the founder of Connecticut.
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Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams in 1636, who had been banished from the Massachusetts colony for his advocacy of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state.
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The first European colony in the Delaware Valley was established by Swedish settlers in 1638.
The colony was best renowned for its agriculture, particularly wheat, corn, and tobacco farming. The colony was also a significant shipbuilding and trading center. The Delaware Colony was an important player in the American Revolutionary War and one of the first colonies to adopt the United States Constitution. -
On March 24, 1663, King Charles II granted a charter for land in America to the Lords Proprietors, who were eight of his closest supporters during the Restoration of 1660. Since a permanent English settlement in the new world was important, the king gave broad powers to the proprietors.
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The colonial history of New Jersey began in 1609 when Henry Hudson first claimed the region on behalf of Holland and renamed it New Netherlands. The Dutch West India Trade Company subsequently gave out land grants to encourage settlement, attracting many migrants from Sweden as well as Holland.
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The first European attempts at settlement failed, but in 1670 a permanent English settlement was established on the coast near present day Charleston. The colony, named Carolina after King Charles I, was divided in 1710 into South Carolina and North Carolina.
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The King signed the Charter of Pennsylvania on March 4, 1681, and it was officially proclaimed on April 2. The King named the new colony in honor of William Penn's father.
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Georgia's colonial experience was very different from that of the other British colonies in North America. Established in 1732, with settlement in Savannah in 1733, Georgia was the last of the thirteen colonies to be founded.