This study presented a comparative analysis of two sets of criminal laws in colonial Jamestown under the Virginia Company of London with seventeenth century English law. The historical evidence indicated England's criminal code closely resembled Jamestown's military regime, also known as "Dale's Laws," from 1610 to 1619. But it was the strict disciplinary nature of Dale's Laws which provided security and stability in the infant colony thus creating an opportunity to institute a more benevolent criminal code and a representative form of government in 1619. Furthermore, this study determined Puritanism and the "Country" Party, both gaining power in England, provided the impetus for Virginia's reform movement. / Department of History