Not long ago someone asked where Virginia's nickname "The Old Dominion" came from. This is from the official source at State Library in VA: Hornbook of Virginia History, fourth edition - p. 88: "The most popular and enduring of Virginia's many nicknames is the Old Dominion. While this name clearly refers to Virginia's status as England's oldest colony in the Americas, it is impossible to trace the origin of the term with precision. Captain John Smith referred to the Jamestown colony as Old Virginia, a designation later used to distinguish the Chesapeake settlements from those in Massachusetts, which were collectively called New Virginia (and eventually, New England). A 1629 letter from Lord Baltimore to England's Charles I mentioned the king's dominion of Virginia. In 1660 Charles II acknowledged a gift of silk from "our auntient dominion of Virginia." In 1663 Virginia's new seal bore the motto En Dat Virginia Quintum (Behold, Virginia Gives the Fifth), recognizing the colony's status alongside the king's four other dominions of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland. As early as 1699, the phrase "most Ancient Colloney and Dominion" appeared in official state documents." Sara Patton