In 1606 King James of England granted a charter to Sir Thomas Gates and
others authorizing settlements in the New World. In 1609 this charter
was revised and enlarged, granting the privileges to a joint-stock
company. Among the merchants, knights, and gentlemen holding shares in
the company and among those particularly interested in the more
southerly areas of North America, including Virginia, were a number of
physicians. The instructions given to the first settlers reflect the
general concern of the London Company for the health of the colony and
perhaps the particular interest of the physicians. One of the
physicians, John Woodall, took especial care to urge that cattle be
sent to provide the settlers with the milk he considered essential to
their health.
Not only did the Company wish to lessen the dangers of disease in the
New World, but it also urged colonization as a means of reducing the
plague in England. In 1609 the Company advised municipal authorities in
London to remove the excess population of that great city to Virginia
as the surplus was thought to be a cause of the plague. There was
little danger of a surplus population during the initial years in
Virginia.
Before the colonists, or the Company, however, had to be concerned with
dangers from disease in Virginia, the colonists had to undertake an
extremely difficult and unhealthy voyage across the Atlantic.