Originally called New London, St. George's was first settled in 1612, three years after the first English settlers in Bermuda, who had been on their way to Virginia, landed on St. George's Island after the deliberate driving of their ship, the Sea Venture, onto a reef. They were led by Admiral Sir George Somers and Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Gates. The survivors built two new ships, and most then continued their voyage to Jamestown, but the Virginia Company laid claim to the island. Two men remained behind, maintaining the company's possession of the archipelago (a third stayed when the Patience returned later that year). The boundaries of Virginia were officially extended far enough out to sea to include Bermuda by the Virginia Company's Third Charter in 1612. The company then sent a party of 60 new settlers to Bermuda to join the three men left behind by the Sea Venture, who, after a brief period on neighbouring St. David's, commenced construction of St. George's, located in a sheltered sound that kept ships protected from bad weather. In 1615, the shareholders of the Virginia Company created a second company, the Somers Isles Company, which administered Bermuda separately until its dissolution in 1684 (the Virginia Company itself was dissolved in 1622).
The State House, the home of Bermuda's parliament in St. George's from 1620 until the capital's relocation to Hamilton in 1815.
This small town has considerable historical importance. Not only did it play a pivotal role in Bermuda's history (it was the capital until 1815), but it also helped shape that of the United States as well. Ten thousand Bermudians emigrated, primarily to Virginia and the American Southeast before U.S. independence closed the door. Branches of wealthy Bermudian merchant families dominated trade in the area's ports. Bermudians settled towns in the area, and contributed greatly to the make up of the populations of several U.S. states. As Bermuda's population centre, and only
