English settlers founded Williamsburg in 1632 as Middle Plantation, a fortified settlement on high ground between the James and York rivers, and farther inland than their headquarters at Jamestown.

Before English settlers arrived at Jamestown to establish the Colony of Virginia in 1607, the area that would become Williamsburg formed part of the territory of the Powhatan Confederacy.

By the 1630s, English settlements had grown to dominate the lower (eastern) portion of the Virginia Peninsula, and Powhatan tribes had abandoned their nearby villages.

Once Governor William Berkeley had regained control, temporary government headquarters were established about 12 miles (19 km) away on the high ground at Middle Plantation, pending the rebuilding of the Statehouse at Jamestown.

They commissioned Reverend James Blair, who spent several years in England lobbying, and finally obtained a royal charter for the desired new school.

A village was laid out and Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg in honor of King William III of England, befitting the town's newly elevated status.

After Williamsburg's designation as the colony's capital, immediate provision was made for construction of a capitol building and for platting the city according to Theodorick Bland's survey.

Alexander Spotswood, who arrived in Virginia as lieutenant governor in 1710, had several ravines filled and streets leveled, and assisted in erecting additional college buildings, a church, and a magazine for the storage of arms.

The Act to "Make Provision for the Support and Maintenance of Ideots, Lunaticks, and other Persons of unsound Minds" authorized the House of Burgesses to appoint a 15-man Court Of Directors to oversee the hospital's operations and admissions.

On July 25, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed at Williamsburg and received with "applause under discharge of cannon and firing of small arms with illuminations [fireworks] in the evening".

During the war, Virginia's capital was moved again, in 1780, this time to Richmond at the urging of then-Governor Thomas Jefferson, who feared Williamsburg's location made it vulnerable to a British attack.

Despite Williamsburg's loss of the business activity involved in government, the College of William & Mary continued and expanded, as did the Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds.

[citation needed] In early May 1862, after holding off Union troops for over a month, the defenders withdrew quietly from the Warwick Line (stretching across the Peninsula between Yorktown and Mulberry Island).

(They were later relocated, and Collis Huntington's real-estate arm, Old Dominion Land Company, donated the site to the forerunner of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.)

[15] Due in no small part to President Ewell's efforts, education continued at the College of William & Mary, although teaching was temporarily suspended for financial reasons from 1882 to 1888.

Ewell's efforts to restore the school and its programs during and after Reconstruction became legendary in Williamsburg and at the college,[citation needed] and were ultimately successful, with funding both from the U.S. Congress and from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

"[16] But even if such complacency existed, one Episcopal priest dreamed of expanding and changing Williamsburg's future to give it a new major purpose, turning much of it into a massive living museum.

In nearby James City County, the c. 1908 C&O Railway combination passenger and freight station at Norge was preserved and, with a donation from CSX Transportation, relocated in 2006 to a site at the Williamsburg Regional Library's Croaker Branch.

On October 22, 1976, the third of three debates between Republican President Gerald Ford and Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election was held at Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall at the College of William & Mary, during which both candidates, perhaps in tribute to the historic venue and the United States Bicentennial celebration, spoke of a "new spirit" in America.

At the end of the meeting, Secretary of State George P. Shultz read to the press a statement confirming the deployment of American Pershing II-nuclear missiles in West Germany later in 1983.

[21] On February 5, 2009, President Barack Obama took his first trip aboard Air Force One to a House Democrats retreat in the city to attend and address their "Issues Conference".

It also used to operate two theme parks near the brewery, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and Water Country USA, but both properties were sold to private investors after foreign brewer InBev took over Anheuser-Busch in 2010.

Anheuser-Busch also previously operated a commerce park, McLaw's Circle, and Kingsmill on the James, a gated residential neighborhood that contains a resort of the same name.

For example, in addressing concerns of property values and noise complaints near campus, the council has undertaken initiatives to reduce student off-campus residential presence in the city by instituting a maximum occupancy rule of three unrelated persons for single-family dwellings,[46] as well as a plan to buy rental houses with taxpayer dollars and resell them with the stipulation that the new owners must occupy them.

If they're living in the dorms for eight months out of the year, and have an address located within the city limits on a Virginia driver's license, they're entitled to register to vote.

Four years later, the city gave an equally massive victory to Joe Biden, who carried the county with 69% of the vote, the best showing for a Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The campus adjoins the Historic District, and the Wren Building at the head of Duke of Gloucester Street was one of the earliest restored by W. A. R. Goodwin and the family of John D. Rockefeller Jr. as they began creating Colonial Williamsburg.

[58] WATA connects with the much larger Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) bus system at Lee Hall in northwestern Newport News and at the Williamsburg Transportation Center.

[61] With few exceptions, motorized traffic is not allowed on Duke of Gloucester Street, which passes through Colonial Williamsburg and the shopping district of Merchant's Square.

During drought, this source may be supplemented by groundwater from a well at Waller Mill and from raw (untreated) water from Newport News Waterworks under a long-term agreement.