Prince George County

Prince George County was established in 1702 and was named in honor of Prince George of Denmark, Husband of England's reigning monarch, Queen Anne. It was formed from Charles City County, one of the original eight shires, and its boundaries stretched from south of the James River down to the North Carolina line. Boundary definition of Prince George County was not completed until 1703. This area was one of the earliest settled regions of Virginia. The English first visited it in May of 1607, when Captain Christopher Newport led a crew of twenty-one men in search of the best location for their permanent settlement. As they sailed up the James River to the mouth of the Appomattox River, Newport noted that the area now known as Prince George would be a suitable location for the settlement. When he returned to the anchored fleet, he found that his impatient followers had already unloaded and begun settlement at Jamestown, without waiting for his advice.