The company had been given a charter by King James I to settle in Chesapeake Bay and to find gold and a route to Asia. Soon after arriving in Virginia the colonists built Fort James. The first people to live in the fort were 105 men and boys. Over time more men and boys went to Jamestown and the population of the settlement grew to 500 people. Recent excavations, however have uncovered postholes where the walls of James Fort were located.
Postholes are the holes in the ground into which the wooden posts for a fence or wall are placed.
The excavations have also shown us three features of the fort. The pits provided clay and mixing areas. More than 44,000 objects were found in the sand and clay that filled the pits. A system of ditches was also found. These ditches were probably used to drain water from inside the fort to the river.