Jamestown, Virginia

Jamestown, Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in America. The first persons landed on May 14 1607, one year before the establishment of the City of Quebec in Canada. About 104 persons were sent by the London Company to leave in three ships, the Sarah Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. They came to Virginia to establish a trading post and to search for gold and silver. After five months at sea,the pioners sighted land at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay on April 26 1607. They sailed about 32 miles up the James River,and then chose a little peninsula as the sight for there setelment. They named both the river and the settlement after King James the 1 of England.

According to Narod Polski, the publication of PRCUA (Polish Roman Catholic Union of America), a year after the settlement of Jamestown, six Polish setters arrived. They were Zbigniew Stefanski, a glass expert, Jan Bogdan, a tar and ship building expert, Jan Mata, a soapmaker, Michael Lowicki, a nobleman and workers Stanislaus Sadowski and Karol Zrenica.

The colony was intended to be guided by the Church of England but the Poles were Roman Catholic. Each settler was required to attend Anglican services or be punished. However, because of the skills and work ethic of the Poles, they were exempt. Therefore the Poles were involved with the very beginnings of religious freedom in America.