JAMESTOWN

city, Chautauqua county, southwestern New York, U.S. It lies at the south end of Chautauqua Lake, 70 miles (113 km) southwest of Buffalo. It was named for James Prendergast, a settler from Pittstown, who in 1811 purchased 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of land there and built a mill; a settlement developed, and furniture and textiles were early manufactures. Abundant waterpower, the opening of the Erie Canal (1825), and the arrival of the Erie Railroad in the 1850s encouraged industrial development. Jamestown's manufactures include precision bearings, furniture, diesel engines, vehicular cooling systems, brass furniture hardware, and refractory products. Many dairy farms are in the vicinity, and the city is a base for the nearby resort areas of Chautauqua Lake and the Allegheny Mountains. Jamestown Community College, part of the State University of New York system, was founded in 1950. Inc. village, 1827; city, 1886. Pop. (1990) city, 34,681; Jamestown MSA, 141,895; (1998 est.) city, 32,166; (1996 est.) Jamestown MSA, 140,800. site of the first permanent British settlement in North America. It was founded on May 14, 1607, and was located on a peninsula (later Jamestown Island) in the James River in Virginia. Named in honour of King James I of England, the colony initiated the cultivation of tobacco, established the first representative government on the continent (1619), brought the first African slaves to the colonies, and built the first Anglican church in America. Situated in an unhealthful marshy area, the colony always had a small population because of a high death rate from disease. In 1608 Jamestown was accidentally burned, and two years later it was about to be abandoned by its inhabitants when Thomas West, 12th Baron De La Warr, arrived with new energy and new supplies. Other fires occurred in 1676 during Bacon's Rebellion and in 1698. It fell into decay when the Virginia seat of government was moved from Jamestown to the Middle Plantation (later Williamsburg) in 1699. By the mid-19th century the peninsula had become an island. Conservation efforts halted the erosion of the site, and excavations uncovered invaluable artifacts and structural traces of the original fort. Archaeological excavations on the island began in 1934. The island was later incorporated into the Colonial National Historical Park, and 17th-century replicas have re-created the colonial atmosphere. seaport town and capital of St. Helena, which is a British island in the South Atlantic Ocean. The town was founded in 1659, when the British East India Company built a fort and established a garrison at the site on James Bay, naming it after the Duke of York (later James II). Jamestown, consisting of little more than a single street, runs up a narrow, deep-sided valley for a mile to a height of 500 feet (150 m). The main sources of revenue are customs duties, wharfage, and the sale of postage stamps to philatelists. Plantation House (governor's residence) and the Cathedral of St. Paul's are 2 miles (3 km) south of the town. Longwood, where Napoleon was exiled and died in 1821, is 2.5 miles (4 km) southwest and is in the custody of the government of France. Pop. (1987) 1,332.