Image: Va Company Seal

Description: The seal of the London Company, also known as the Charter of the Virginia Company of London. The Company was an English joint stock company established by royal charter by James I on 10 April 1606 with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America. It was not founded as a joint stock company, but became one under its 1609 charter. It was responsible for establishing the Jamestown Settlement, the first permanent English settlement in the present United States in 1607, and in the process of sending additional supplies, inadvertently settled the Somers Isles (present day Bermuda), the oldest-remaining English colony, in 1609. In 1624, the company lost its charter, and Virginia became a royal colony. The Latin phrase on the left oval "SIGILVM REGIS MAGNÆ BRITANIÆ FRANCIÆ ET HIBERNIÆ" means "Sign of the great king of Britain, Francia and Hibernia".
Title: Va Company Seal
Credit: Plates between pp. 29 and 30 of Wesley Frank Craven (1957, republished 11 April 2009) The Virginia Company of London, 1606–1624 [Jamestown 350th Anniversary historical booklet, no. 5], Williamsburg, Va.: Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation (republished by Project Gutenberg as EBook #28555) OCLC: 22551439. The caption reads: "Virginia Seal. Courtesy Mrs. L. T. Jester and Mrs. P. W. Hiden." Image originally from the U.S. National Park Service Colonial Jamestown website accessed on 11 April 2004 (Internet archive of page text at http://web.archive.org/web/20040430213806/http://www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/VACompany.html.) Similar images of the seal can be seen at http://www.preservationvirginia.org/rediscovery/page.php?page_id=22 and http://web.ukonline.co.uk/lordcornell/iwhr/va/via.htm.
Author: Probably the Virginia Company of London; original uploader was VirginiaProp at en.wikipedia.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No