List of colonial governors of Virginia
This is a list of colonial governors of Virginia. Some of these governors never visited the New World and governed through deputies resident in the colony.
Virginia Company of London Governors (1607-1624)
From 1606 until 1624, Proprietary Governors oversaw the operation of the Virginia Colony.
- Edward Maria Wingfield (1607)
- John Ratcliffe (1608)
- Matthew Scrivener (1608)
- John Smith (1608-1609)
- George Percy (1609-1610)
- Thomas Gates (1610)
- Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr (1610-1611)
- George Percy (1611)
- Thomas Dale (1611, 1614-1616)
- Thomas Gates (1611-1614)
- George Yeardley 1616-1617, 1619-1621)
- Samuel Argall (1617-1619)
- Francis Wyatt (1621-1624)
Crown Governors (1624-1652)
After the Virginia Company of London lost its proprietary charter in 1624, Royal Governors oversaw the interests of the Crown in the Virginia Colony until the American Revolution, except for a period under Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth of England from 1652-1660.
- Francis Wyatt (1624-1626, 1639-1642)
- George Yeardley (1626-1627)
- Francis West (1627-1629)
- John Pott (1629-1630)
- John Harvey (1630-1635, 1637-1639)
- John West (1635-1637)
- William Berkeley (1642-1652)
- Richard Kemp (1644-1645)
Commonwealth of England Governors (1652-1660)
- Richard Bennett (1652-1655)
- Edward Digges (1655-1656)
- Samuel Mathews (1656-1660)
- William Berkeley (1660)
Crown Governors (1660-1775)
- William Berkeley (1669-1677)
- Thomas Culpeper, 2nd Baron Culpeper of Thoresway (1677-1683)
- Francis Howard, 5th Baron Howard of Effingham (1683-1692)
- Edmund Andros (1692-1698)
- Francis Nicholson (1698-1705)
- President of the Council Edward Nott (1705-1706)
- Edmund Jenings (1706-1708)
- Robert Hunter (1707-1709)
- George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney (1710-1737, absentee)
- Lieutenant Governor: Alexander Spotswood (1710-1722)
- President of the Council: Robert "King" Carter (1726-Sept. 1727)[1]
- Lieutenant Governor: William Gooch (1727-1740)
- Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle (1737-1754, absentee)
- Lieutenant Governor: William Gooch (1741-1749)
- Lieutenant Governor: Robert Dinwiddie (1751-January 1758)
- John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun, (1756-1759)
- Lieutenant Governor: Robert Dinwiddie (1751 to January 1758)
- Lieutenant Governor: Francis Fauquier (1758-1768)
- Jeffery Amherst (1759-1768, absentee)
- President of the Council John Blair (1768)
- Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt (1768-1770)
- William Nelson (1770-1771)
- John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore (1771-June 1775)
President of the Committee for Public Safety
- Edmund Pendleton (16 August, 1775-5 July, 1776)[2]