 Regarding navigation on the James River, in his "Notes on the State of Virginia", written in 1781–82, then-Governor Thomas Jefferson stated "Vessels of 250 tons may go to Warwick" 

In 1619, Falling Creek Ironworks was established in the Virginia Colony near the future site of Warwick.The first in what became the United States, the facilities were destroyed and most of the colonists there killed during the Indian Massacre of 1622 on Good Friday, March 22, 1622.Warwick, just west of where a local tributary, Falling Creek, has its confluence with the river, was in existence from 1730 to 1781.