At that time, the capital was relocated to Middle Plantation, about 8 miles (13 km) distant.

(That small community, which had also become home to the new College of William and Mary in 1693, was renamed Williamsburg in 1699).

George Craghead Gregory (1878–1956) was an attorney and businessman based in Richmond who had a strong interest in Virginia's history and was also an author and historian.

Since its founding, the Society has helped conserve colonial records, financially supported the archaeology dig inside the Memorial Church at Jamestown, paid for the casting of the replica bell, and partnered with Jamestown Rediscovery to publish Church & State: The Archaeology of the Foundations of Democracy in 2019.

[2] In 1983, the Society was formally organized as a non-profit corporation under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (1954, as amended).