Editing Richmond, Virginia (section)

===Colonial era===
[[File:Portrait, William Byrd II, Sir Godfrey Kneller.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[William Byrd II]] is considered the founder of Richmond. The Byrd family, which includes [[Harry F. Byrd]], has been central to Virginia's history since its founding. ]]
After the first permanent English-speaking settlement was established at [[Jamestown, Virginia]], in April 1607, [[Christopher Newport|Captain Christopher Newport]] led explorers northwest up the [[James River (Virginia)|James River]] to an inhabited area in the [[Powhatan]] Nation.<ref>{{cite web |last1=City of Richmond |title=History |url=http://www.richmondgov.com/Visitors/History.aspx |access-date=August 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141025141830/http://www.richmondgov.com/Visitors/History.aspx |archive-date=October 25, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
Richmond was Arrohattoc territory where Arrohateck village was located. However, as time progressed relations between the Arrohattocs and English colonists declined, and by 1609 the tribe was unwilling to trade with the settlers. As the population began to dwindle, the tribe declined and was last mentioned in a 1610 report by the visiting William Strachey. By 1611 the tribe's Henrico town was found to be deserted when Sir Thomas Dale went to use the land to found Henricus.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/tripideas/richmond-s-indigenous-heritage.htm |title=History Up Close Near Richmond, Virginia |publisher=United States National Park Service |access-date=August 13, 2024}}</ref>

In 1611, the first European settlement in Central Virginia was established at [[Henricus]], where the [[Falling Creek (James River tributary)|Falling Creek]] empties into the James River. In 1619, early [[Virginia Company]] settlers established the [[Falling Creek Ironworks]] there. [[Anglo-Powhatan Wars|Decades of conflicts]] between the Powhatan and the settlers followed, including the [[Battle of Bloody Run (1656)|Battle of Bloody Run]], fought near Richmond in 1656, after tensions arose from an influx of [[Manahoac]]s and [[Nahyssans]] from the North. Nonetheless, the James Falls area saw more White settlement in the late 1600s and early 1700s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dabney |first=Virginius | author-link=Virginius Dabney |title=Richmond: The Story of a City |year=1990 |edition=revised and expanded |isbn=978-0813912745 |publisher=[[University Press of Virginia]]}}</ref>

In early 1737, planter [[William Byrd II]] commissioned [[William Mayo (civil engineer)|Major William Mayo]] to lay out the original town grid, completed in April. Byrd named the city after the English town of [[Richmond, London|Richmond]] near (and now part of) London, because the view of the James River's bend at the fall line reminded him of his home at [[Richmond Hill, London|Richmond Hill]] on the [[River Thames]]. In 1742, the settlement was incorporated as a town.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Mary Wingfield |title=Houses of Old Richmond |date=1941 |publisher=The Valentine Museum |location=Richmond, Virginia |url=http://www.rosegill.com/ProjectWinkie/Houses%20of%20Old%20Richmond.pdf |access-date=August 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924092051/http://www.rosegill.com/ProjectWinkie/Houses%20of%20Old%20Richmond.pdf |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Harvey2012">{{cite book |last1=Harvey |first1=Eleanor Jones |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2CPJyvqk4CUC&pg=PA162 |title=The Civil War and American Art |last2=Smithsonian American Art Museum |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-300-18733-5 |page=162}}</ref>