page_title: English overseas possessions
section_title: List of English possessions in North America
hierarchical_section_title: English overseas possessions / The Americas / List of English possessions in North America
caption_attribution_description: English: "John Smith," line engraving from the 18th century, after Simon De Passe. 6 7/8 in. x 4 3/4 in. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
context_page_description: The English overseas possessions, also known as the English colonial empire, comprised a variety of overseas territories that were colonised, conquered, or otherwise acquired by the former Kingdom of England during the centuries before the Acts of Union of 1707 between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland created the Kingdom of Great Britain. The many English possessions then became the foundation of the British Empire and its fast-growing naval and mercantile power, which until then had yet to overtake those of the Dutch Republic, the Kingdom of Portugal, and the Kingdom of Spain.
  The first English overseas settlements were established in Ireland, quickly followed by others in North America, Bermuda, and the West Indies, and by trading posts called "factories" in the East Indies, such as Bantam, and in the Indian subcontinent, beginning with Surat. In 1639, a series of English fortresses on the Indian coast was initiated with Fort St George. In 1661, the marriage of King Charles II to Catherine of Braganza brought him as part of her dowry new possessions which until then had been Portuguese, including Tangier in North Africa and Bombay in India.
context_section_description: St John's, Newfoundland, chartered in 1583 by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, was seasonally settled ca. 1520 and had settlers who remained all year round by 1620.
  Roanoke Colony, in present-day North Carolina, was first founded in 1586 but was abandoned the next year. In 1587 a second attempt was made at establishing a settlement, but the colonists disappeared, leading to the name 'Lost Colony.' One of those lost was Virginia Dare.
  At Cuttyhunk, one of the Elizabeth Islands (named after Queen Elizabeth I) of present-day Massachusetts, a small fort and trading post was established by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, but the island was abandoned after only one month.
  The Virginia Company was chartered in 1606, and in 1624 its concessions became the royal Colony of Virginia.
  Jamestown, Virginia, was founded by the Virginia Company of London in 1607.
  Bermuda, also known as the Somers Isles, lying in the North Atlantic, were accidentally settled by the Virginia Company of London in 1609, due to the wrecking of the company's flagship Sea Venture; the company's possession was made official in 1612, when St George's, the oldest continually-inhabited, and the first proper, English town in the New World was established; in 1615 its administration passed to the Somers Isles Company, which was formed by the same shareholders; House of Assembly of Bermuda established in 1620; Bermudians' complaints to the Crown led to the revocation of the company's Royal charter in 1684.
  Henricus, also called Henricopolis, Henrico Town, and Henrico, was founded by the London Virginia Company in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy Jamestown, but it was largely destroyed in the Indian massacre of 1622.
  Popham Colony: on 13 August 1607, the Virginia Company of Plymouth settled the Popham Colony along the Kennebec River in present-day Maine. The company had a licence to establish settlements between the 38th parallel (the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay) and the 45th parallel (near the current US border with Canada). However, Popham was abandoned after about a year, and the Company then became inactive.
  The Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol began to settle Newfoundland:
  Cuper's Cove, founded in 1610, was abandoned in the 1620s
  Bristol's Hope, founded in 1618, was abandoned in the 1630s
  London and Bristol Company (Newfoundland)
  Cambriol, founded in 1617. In 1616 Sir William Vaughan (1575–1641) bought from the Newfoundland Company all that land on the Avalon Peninsula located south of a line drawn from Caplin Bay (now Calvert) to Placentia Bay. The colony had been abandoned by 1637.
  Renews, founded in 1615, abandoned in 1619
  Plymouth Council for New England
  Plymouth Colony, founded 1620, merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691
  Ferryland, Newfoundland, granted to George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore in 1620, first settlers in August 1621
  Province of Maine, granted 1622, sold to Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1677
  South Falkland, Newfoundland, founded 1623 by Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland
  Province of New Hampshire, later New Hampshire settled in 1623, see also New Hampshire Grants
  Cape Ann was an unsuccessful fishing colony settled in 1624 by the Dorchester Company.
  Salem Colony, settled in 1628, merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony the next year
  Massachusetts Bay Colony, later part of Massachusetts, founded in 1629
  New Scotland, in present Nova Scotia, 1629–1632
  Connecticut Colony, later part of Connecticut, founded in 1633
  Province of Maryland, later Maryland, founded in 1634
  Province of New Albion, chartered in 1634, but had failed by 1649–50.
  Saybrook Colony, founded in 1635, merged with Connecticut in 1644
  Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, first settled in 1636
  New Haven Colony, founded 1638, merged with Connecticut in 1665
  Gardiners Island, founded 1639, now part of East Hampton, New York
  The New England Confederation, formally the 'United Colonies of New England', was a short-lived military alliance of the English colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, established in 1643, aiming to unite the Puritan colon
caption: Captain John Smith, 'Admiral of New England'
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