Which city is considered one of the oldest settlements in North America?
St. John's is one of the oldest settlements in North America, with year-round settlement beginning sometime after 1630 and seasonal habitation long before that. It is not, however, the oldest surviving English settlement in North America or Canada, having been preceded by the Cuper's Cove colony at Cupids, founded in 1610, and the Bristol's Hope colony at Harbour Grace, founded in 1618. In fact, although English fishermen had begun setting up seasonal camps in Newfoundland in the 16th Century, they were expressly forbidden by the British government, at the urging of the West Country fishing industry, from establishing permanent settlements along the English controlled coast, hence the town of St. John's was not established as a permanent community until after the 1630s at the earliest. Other permanent English settlements in the Americas that predate St. John's include: St. George's, Bermuda (1612) and Jamestown, Virginia (1607).