The Colony of Virginia (also known frequently as the Virginia Colony, the Province of Virginia, and occasionally as the Dominion and Colony of Virginia or His Majesty's Most Ancient Colloney and Dominion of Virginia) was the first permanently settled English colony in North America. Newfoundland, with seasonal settlements, had been established as a colony by Royal Charter in 1583. American archaeologist William Kelso says Virginia "is where the British Empire began ... this was the first colony in the British Empire." The colony existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American Revolution (as a British colony after 1707). The name Virginia was first applied by Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth I in 1584. After the English Civil War in the mid