A Brief History of Newport News, VA

The origin of the unusual name of "Newport News" is unclear, even to its residents. Some locals believe that it gained its name as the geographic point at which "news" reached shore of Captain Christopher Newport's long delayed arrival after his ill-fated Third Supply mission. Perhaps originally the name signaled hope that Jamestown would survive and the "Starving Time" was over. However, it is more probably that the original name was "New Port Newce", named for a person with the name Newce and the town's place was a new seaport. The first English Settlement on the site of Newport News was made in 1612 in Elizabeth Cittie by planters brought from Ireland by Daniel Gookin, who selected the site on the advice of Sir William Newce and his brother Captain Thomas Newce.