<P> Eighty - one years before the coming of the English to Jamestown in 1607, a settlement was made in Virginia by Spaniards from San Domingo, under the leadership of Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón . Accompanied by the Dominican Fathers Antonio de Montesinos and Antonio de Cervantes with Brother Peter de Estrada, the expedition set sail in three vessels from Puerto de la Plata, in June 1526 . The severity of the winter, the rebellion of the settlers, and the hostility of the natives caused the abandonment of the settlement in the spring of 1527 . </P> <P> In 1624 Virginia was made a crown colony . Because of the establishment of the English Church, hostility was shown to adherents of other beliefs and to Catholics in particular . Lord Baltimore attempted in vain to plant a Catholic colony in Virginia (1629--30). Stringent legislation was enacted against Catholics . In 1641 a decree declared that adherents of the pope were to be fined 1000 pounds of tobacco if they attempted to hold office . The following year all priests were given five days within which to leave the colony . In 1661 all persons were obliged to attend the Established services or pay a fine of £ 20 . The governor issued orders to magistrates, sheriffs, constables, and people to be diligent in the apprehension and bringing to justice of all Catholic priests . The records of Norfolk County (1687) show Fathers Edmonds and Raymond arrested . In 1699 Catholics were deprived of their right of voting, and later a fine of 500 pounds of tobacco was imposed upon violators of the law . They were declared incompetent as witnesses in 1705, and in 1753 such incompetency was made to cover all cases . </P> <P> Massachusetts was first settled by English religious dissenters . Quakers, Jews, and Roman Catholics were not permitted in the colony . Catholics avoided Massachusetts during the colonial period after laws passed in 1647 and 1700 forbade Catholic priests to reside in the colony under pain of imprisonment and execution . Because many of the British colonists, such as the Puritans and Congregationalists, were fleeing religious persecution by the Church of England, much of early American religious culture exhibited the anti-Catholic bias of these Protestant denominations . </P> <P> Near the close of the reign of Charles I (d . 1649), the forced emigration of the Irish brought many to Massachusetts . However, their number is hard to estimate because the law obliged all Irishmen in certain towns of Ireland to take English surnames--the names of some small town, of a color, of a particular trade or office, or of a certain art or craft . </P>

Which was not a catholic country at the time of the founding of jamestown