The first English settlement on the site of Newport News was made in 1621 in Elizabeth Cittie by planters brought from Ireland by Daniel Gookin. He had selected the site on the advice of Sir William Newce and his brother Captain Thomas Newce. On the edge of Elizabeth City County, it was earliest an unincorporated town without formal boundaries in Warwick County for over 250 years. Some early maps show it as Newport News Point. Beginning in 1881, 15 years of explosive development began under Collis P. Huntington, who built a new railroad, coal piers, and a large shipyard. In 1896, Newport News, which had been the county seat of Warwick County, became a separate city from the county. |