Good Narrative on the Virginia Company,the second two are quick reads.

{....The charter to the Virginia Company granted by King James provided for the incorporation of two companies: the London Company and the Plymouth Company.

It was the London Company that established the first permanent English colony in America; the expedition of one hundred and twenty settlers who left England in December, 1606, made their first landfall at Cape Henry, April 29, 1607, and planted a colony at Jamestown May 14.

As is always the case, the passage of time and the development of the technology of the times gradually brought the prospect of travel to the New world closer to the average man of the street.

In anticipation of the flood of people to the New World which was, in a time not too far off, inevitable, and in order to take advantage of the possibilities for trade and commerce which would then be afforded, in 1604, a group of prominent statesmen, businessmen, merchants, financiers and manufacturers assembled in Greenwich, in the County of Kent, England, to create and form a Corporation. Joint Stock Company and Body Politic which was to be known as and called "The Virginia Company."

Given that the New World was an extension of the British Empire Across the sea, and the colonies formed therein were operating under the auspices of the Virginia company, the criminal courts in the new colonies were therefore and thereby to operate under Admiralty Law (the law of the sea). The Civil Courts (those of Chancery and Equity) were to operate under Common Law (the law of the land). The Criminal Courts of the United States still operate today under Admiralty Law...}
https://exploringrealhistory.blogspot.com/2019/01/part-5-pandoras-boxthe-virginia.html