page_title: English Americans
section_title: Early settlement and colonization
hierarchical_section_title: English Americans / History / Early settlement and colonization
context_page_description: English Americans, or Anglo-Americans, are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England. It’s estimated that around 50 million Americans have English ancestry.
  The term is distinct from British Americans, which includes not only English Americans but also Scottish, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, Cornish and Manx Americans from the whole of the United Kingdom.
  Demographers regard the reported number of English Americans as a serious undercount, as the index of inconsistency is high and many if not most Americans from English stock have a tendency to identify simply as "Americans" or if of mixed European ancestry, identify with a more recent and differentiated ethnic group.
  In the 1980 Census, over 49 million Americans claimed English ancestry. At 26.34%, this was the largest group amongst the 188 million people who reported at least one ancestry. The population was 226 million which would have made the English ancestry group 22% of the total. Scotch-Irish Americans are for the most part descendants of Lowland Scots and Northern English settlers who colonized Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century.
context_section_description: English settlement in America began with Jamestown in the Virginia Colony in 1607. With the permission of James I, three ships (the Susan Constant, The Discovery, and The God Speed) sailed from England and landed at Cape Henry in April, under the captainship of Christopher Newport, who had been hired by the London Company to lead expeditions to what is now America.
  The second successful colony was Plymouth Colony, founded in 1620 by people who later became known as the Pilgrims. Fleeing religious persecution in the East Midlands in England, they first went to Holland, but feared losing their English identity. Because of this, they chose to relocate to the New World, with their voyage being financed by English investors. In September 1620, 102 passengers set sail aboard the Mayflower, eventually settling at Plymouth Colony in November. Of the passengers on the Mayflower, 41 men signed the "Mayflower Compact" aboard ship on November 11, 1620, while anchored in Provincetown Harbor. Signers included Carver, Alden, Standish, Howland, Bradford, Allerton, and Fuller. This story has become a central theme in the United States cultural identity.
  A number of English colonies were established under a system of proprietary governors, who were appointed under mercantile charters to English joint stock companies to found and run settlements.
  England also took over the Dutch colony of New Netherland (including the New Amsterdam settlement), renaming it the Province of New York in 1664. With New Netherland, the English came to control the former New Sweden (in what is now Delaware), which the Dutch had conquered from Sweden earlier. This became part of Pennsylvania.
caption: The first self-governing document of Plymouth Colony. English Pilgrims signing the Mayflower Compact in 1620.
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