Charter colony

Last updated May 11, 2023

Charter colony is one of three classes of colonial government established in the 17th century English colonies in North America, the other classes being proprietary colony and royal colony. These colonies were operated under a corporate charter given by the crown.^[1] The colonies of Virginia, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts Bay were at one time or another charter colonies. The crown might revoke a charter and convert the colony into a crown colony. In a charter colony, Britain granted a charter to the colonial government establishing the rules under which the colony was to be governed. The charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut granted the colonists significantly more political liberty than other colonies. Rhode Island and Connecticut continued to use their colonial charters as their State constitutions after the American Revolution.^[2]

Massachusetts Bay Colony

In 1628, a Puritan group of well-rounded businessmen created the Governor for and Company of Massachusetts Bay to be a profitable investment in the colonies. The Council of New England authorized a land grant, allowing the company rights to the area between the Charles and Merrimack rivers to the Pacific Ocean westward. Seeking surplus protection for their endeavor, the Puritans requested and were granted a charter from England. ^[3] In 1629, the businessmen undertaking the New World endeavor signed the Cambridge Agreement, agreeing to accomplish the Atlantic voyage for complete authority over the charter and the colony. The power transfer was an influential step to creating a theocratic Massachusetts. Political power was held by the staunch Puritanical fellow believers.^[3] In 1684, the royal charter was taken away, splitting the Massachusetts Bay company and the colony. In 1691, Plymouth Colony and Maine were absorbed in a new royal charter.^[3]

Rhode Island

Rhode Island's permanent settlement by European colonists began in 1636 when a group of refugees from the Massachusetts Bay Colony left the colony to seek freedom of worship. Roger Williams, the unofficial head of the group of refugees, acquired land from Native Americans and established the town of Providence. Other early towns settled in the Rhode Island area were Portsmouth (1638), Newport (1639), and Warwick (1642). The lands on which these original four towns were settled were held only through Indian deeds, so naturally, they caught the attention of nearby colonies. In order to protect the small haven that the town had established, Roger Williams acquired a parliamentary patent from England between the years 1643 and 1644. Rhode Island is a charter colony.^[4] In the early 1660s, John Clarke was given the task of getting from King Charles II a charter that would both protect the colony from surrounding larger colonies and preserve the religious ideals that had been present with the colony since its beginning. The charter that the colony received was the royal charter of 1663. This charter, said to be one of the most liberal of the colonial era, not only granted the religious freedom that the colony sought, but also allowed Rhode Island to have local autonomy and gave the colony a much tighter grip on its territory.^[4]

Connecticut

A royal charter was not granted for Connecticut until 1662. The charter was proposed by John Winthrop the Younger or John Winthrop Jr. and granted by Charles II. Up to that date, the people of Connecticut had only negotiated titles for ownership with the Indians, having no titles recognized by England on Connecticut soil. The only restrictions limiting the newly appointed charter's independent powers were, like other royal charters, the boundaries set by English law. While Connecticut power's had the ability to create new laws, they were to not exceed the limits or contradict with the rules set place by English government.^[5] Attempting to absorb the New Haven Colony created tensions due to the colony's resistance to any attempted control by Connecticut. Only after the perceived threat of absorption by New York was realized, did New Haven give in and agree to merge with Connecticut (though not before losing many people wishing to maintain independence from Connecticut rule, through migration to New Jersey.)^[5] Connecticut was not free from the control of England through the royal charter until after the conflict with King James II. Even after the conflict with England, Connecticut was still able to retain a liberal charter from England.^[5]

Sources

↑ Robertson, Andrew; Morrison, Michael A.; Shade, William G.; Johnston, Robert; Zieger, Robert; Langston, Thomas; Valelly, Richard (2010). Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History. SAGE. ISBN 978-0-87289-320-7.
↑ Putney, Albert H. (1908). "Popular Law Library Vol 1 Introduction To The Study Of Law Legal History". Cree Publishing Company. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
1 2 3 "Virginia". United States History. Online Highways. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
1 2 Cornwell, Elmer (2007). "Rhode Island History". Rhode Island Manual. State of Rhode Island General Assembly. Archived from the original on 2012-08-31. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
1 2 3 Elson, William Henry (1904). "Connecticut Colonial History". History of the United States of America. The MacMillan Company. Retrieved September 3, 2010.

Related Research Articles

The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, or the Thirteen American Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centuries, the American Enlightenment led these colonies to revolution, and declaring full independence in July 1776. With victory over Britain in the American Revolutionary War the former colonies were confirmed as the new United States of America. Just prior to declaring independence, the Thirteen Colonies in their traditional groupings were: New England ; Middle ; Southern. The Thirteen Colonies came to have very similar political, constitutional, and legal systems, dominated by Protestant English-speakers. The first of these colonies was Virginia Colony in 1607, a Southern colony. While all these colonies needed to become economically viable, the founding of the New England colonies, as well as the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania, were substantially motivated by their founders' concerns related to the practice of religion. The other colonies were founded for business and economic expansion. The Middle Colonies were established on an earlier Dutch colony, New Netherland. All the Thirteen Colonies were part of Britain's possessions in the New World, which also included territory in Canada, Florida, and the Caribbean.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony, more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The lands of the settlement were in southern New England, with initial settlements on two natural harbors and surrounding land about 15.4 miles (24.8 km) apart—the areas around Salem and Boston, north of the previously established Plymouth Colony. The territory nominally administered by the Massachusetts Bay Colony covered much of central New England, including portions of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.

This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from before the lead up to the American Revolution.

Theophilus Eaton was a wealthy New England Puritan merchant and diplomat. He became 1st Governor of New Haven Colony, Connecticut, cofounder of that same colony and cofounder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His brother, Nathaniel Eaton, was the first Head of Harvard.

The New Haven Colony was a small English colony in Connecticut from 1638 to 1664, with outposts in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

The governments of the Thirteen Colonies of British America developed in the 17th and 18th centuries under the influence of the British constitution. After the Thirteen Colonies had become the United States, the experience under colonial rule would inform and shape the new state constitutions and, ultimately, the United States Constitution.

The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settlement for a Puritan congregation, and the English permanently gained control of the region in 1637 after struggles with the Dutch. The colony was later the scene of a bloody war between the colonists and Pequot Indians known as the Pequot War. Connecticut Colony played a significant role in the establishment of self-government in the New World with its refusal to surrender local authority to the Dominion of New England, an event known as the Charter Oak incident which occurred at Jeremy Adams' inn and tavern.

The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. It was founded by Roger Williams. It was an English colony from 1636 until 1707, and then a colony of Great Britain until the American Revolution in 1776, when it became the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in New England which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and was based in the merging of several earlier British colonies in New England. The charter took effect on May 14, 1692, and included the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Plymouth Colony, the Province of Maine, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick; the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the direct successor. Maine has been a separate state since 1820, and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are now Canadian provinces, having been part of the colony only until 1697.

John Clarke was a physician, Baptist minister, co-founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, author of its influential charter, and a leading advocate of religious freedom in America.

The Dominion of New England in America (1686–1689) was an administrative union of English colonies covering all of New England and the Mid-Atlantic Colonies, with the exception of the Delaware Colony and the Province of Pennsylvania. The region's political structure was one of centralized control similar to the model used by the Spanish monarchy under the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The dominion was unacceptable to most colonists because they deeply resented being stripped of their rights and having their colonial charters revoked. Governor Edmund Andros tried to make legal and structural changes, but most of these were undone and the Dominion was overthrown as soon as word was received that King James II had left the throne in England. One notable change was the forced introduction of the Church of England into Massachusetts, whose Puritan leaders had previously refused to allow it any sort of foothold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proprietary colony</span> English colony in which all land was subject to the monarchs control

A proprietary colony was a type of English colony mostly in North America and in the Caribbean in the 17th century. In the British Empire, all land belonged to the monarch, and it was his/her prerogative to divide. Therefore, all colonial properties were partitioned by royal charter into one of four types: proprietary, royal, joint stock, or covenant. Under the proprietary system, individuals or companies were granted commercial charters by the monarchs of the Kingdom of England to establish colonies. These proprietors then selected the governors and other officials in the colony.

A charter is a document that gives colonies the legal rights to exist. Charters can bestow certain rights on a town, city, university, or other institution.

New England is the oldest clearly defined region of the United States, being settled more than 150 years before the American Revolution. The first colony in New England was Plymouth Colony, established in 1620 by the Puritan Pilgrims who were fleeing religious persecution in England. A large influx of Puritans populated the New England region during the Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640), largely in the Boston and Salem area. Farming, fishing, and lumbering prospered, as did whaling and sea trading.

The area that is now Massachusetts was colonized by English settlers in the early 17th century and became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the 18th century. Before that, it was inhabited by a variety of Native American tribes. Massachusetts is named after the Massachusett tribe that inhabited the area of present-day Greater Boston. The Pilgrim Fathers who sailed on the Mayflower established the first permanent settlement in 1620 at Plymouth Colony which set precedents but never grew large. A large-scale Puritan migration began in 1630 with the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and that spawned the settlement of other New England colonies.

The New England Colonies of British America included Connecticut Colony, the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, and the Province of New Hampshire, as well as a few smaller short-lived colonies. The New England colonies were part of the Thirteen Colonies and eventually became five of the six states in New England, with Plymouth Colony absorbed into Massachusetts and Maine separating from it. Captain John Smith's 1616 work A Description of New England first applied the term "New England" to the coastal lands from Long Island Sound to Newfoundland.

The English overseas possessions, also known as the English colonial empire, comprised a variety of overseas territories that were colonised, conquered, or otherwise acquired by the former Kingdom of England during the centuries before the Acts of Union of 1707 between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland created the Kingdom of Great Britain. The many English possessions then became the foundation of the British Empire and its fast-growing naval and mercantile power, which until then had yet to overtake those of the Dutch Republic, the Kingdom of Portugal, and the Crown of Castile.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Robertson, Andrew; Morrison, Michael A.; Shade, William G.; Johnston, Robert; Zieger, Robert; Langston, Thomas; Valelly, Richard (2010). Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History. SAGE. ISBN 978-0-87289-320-7.

[2] Putney, Albert H. (1908). "Popular Law Library Vol 1 Introduction To The Study Of Law Legal History". Cree Publishing Company. Retrieved September 3, 2010.

[massbay-3] 1 2 3 "Virginia". United States History. Online Highways. Retrieved September 3, 2010.

[cornwell-4] 1 2 Cornwell, Elmer (2007). "Rhode Island History". Rhode Island Manual. State of Rhode Island General Assembly. Archived from the original on 2012-08-31. Retrieved August 28, 2011.

[elson-5] 1 2 3 Elson, William Henry (1904). "Connecticut Colonial History". History of the United States of America. The MacMillan Company. Retrieved September 3, 2010.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]