The Virginia Company and the Foundations of Religious Governance in English Commercial Expansion

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter traces the use of religious governance in England’s early attempts to colonise Virginia between 1606 and 1624. It assesses how, in the initial steps to establish English authority abroad, religious governance was influenced by the political and governmental characters of successive company leaders such as Thomas Dale, Thomas Gates and John Smith. This explains why the Virginia Company embraced multiple forms of religious governance that would later be used as separate and distinct models of governance by successive companies. The Virginia Company experimented with religious governance to secure their control over English personnel abroad. Moreover, it became an instrumental tool in the companies’ attempts to expand their jurisdictional authority over Native American leaders, such as Powhatan, Pocahontas and her uncle Uttamatomakkin. By doing this company leaders hoped to establish governmental control over Native American peoples, and traditions, such as those Smith writes about in Generall Histoirie of Virginia, traditionally considered beyond the bounds of English governance. Finally, it examines how the experiences and memories of religious governance in the Virginia Company provided the groundwork for future forms of corporate religious governance to evolve.