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Massachusetts Bay Colony

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The Massachusetts Bay Colony (sometimes called the Massachusetts Bay Company, for the institution that founded it) was an English settlement on the coast of North America in the 1600s, centered around the present-day city of Boston, which is now in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 United States.

Caution: Some sources use Julian calendar dates before 1753.

Previous nearby settlements

Given the overlapping land patents that various colonial groups obtained from English kings and companies, and later consolidation of territory into the Thirteen Colonies, several pre-existing groups would later become directly involved in the history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The Virginia Company of Plymouth was granted land from the 38th parallel to the 45th as part of the Virginia Charter in 1606. The only settlement, the Popham Colony (at the mouth of the Kennebec River in present-day Maine) was abandoned 1608. Land south of the 41st parallel (south of about Long Island Sound) was awarded to the sister Virginia Company of London, which had previously held joint claim to this territory.

In 1620, the territory of defunct "Plymouth Company" was reorganized under the Plymouth Council for New England. King James I granted a charter for all the lands in America between 40° North and 48° N, "throughout the Maine Land from Sea to Sea." This included everything from the middle of present-day New Jersey in the south to present-day New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the north.

Later in 1620, a group of Puritan separatist settlers now referred to as the Pilgrims (who sailed from England on the Mayflower) independently founded the Plymouth Colony on land owned by the Plymouth Council. The first settlement of the colony is now the site of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The writing of the Mayflower Compact and the founding of the Plymouth Colony are taught in the United States as seminal events in the history of the nation. But it was the Massachusetts Bay Colony and its successors in the Boston area which would come to dominate the New England region in population and economic strength. And it was Massachusetts Bay that would give its name to the Province of Massachusetts when it absorbed Plymouth and other neighboring colonies in 1691-2.

The Province of Maine was granted a royal patent in 1622, which included the coast from the Merrimac River (which is slightly south of the current Massachusetts-New Hampshire border) to the Kennebec River (in the middle of the coast of present-day Maine).

Predecessor companies

The 1623 Sheffield Patent allocated Cape Ann to Robert Cushman, Edward Winslow, and their associates. During the winter of 1623-24, John White and the Dorchester Company settled on this land at Stage Point (present-day Gloucester, Massachusetts). In 1625, they invited Roger Conant to run the fishing colony.[1] They were joined by some members of the Plymouth Colony. [2] By 1626, the attempted had failed. Most colonists returned to England, but Courant lead about 20 to Naumkeag[3] (which was renamed Salem in 1629[4]), where they set up a trading post.

The bankrupt Dorchester Company (in 1627?) was then superceded by the New England Company (which had overlapping membership).[5] The Company received a land patent from the Plymouth Council for New England extending from the Merrimack River to the Charles River plus three miles on either side.[6]

John Endicott led a group of Puritan settlers to Salem, and served as governor from their arrival on September 6, 1628.

The Massachusetts Bay Company replaced both of these when the Puritans were able to convert the patents into a royal charter on March 4, 1629, which styled them the "Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England".[7]

A Puritan colony

The first 400 settlers under this new charter departed in April 1629. Most, but not all of the members of the Company were Puritans, and events during the spring and summer of 1629 convinced them they could only remain non-conformists in the Church of England by getting out of England. Charles I had dissolved the parliament, and William Laud, the Bishop of London, renewed the pressure on the separatist Puritans to conform with church practices. His harassment was a direct cause of the progressively larger emigration, also called the Winthrop Fleet, over the next few years.

Perhaps by oversight, the company's charter made no mention of the location of its headquarters. On August 29, the shareholders who wished to move to America reached an agreement (The Cambridge Agreement) and bought out those who wished to remain in England. So when John Winthrop set out with the next wave of 700 settlers in March of 1630 (The Winthrop Fleet of 1630) they carried their Charter with them, and Winthrop replaced Endicott as governor of the Colony.

When they reached their destination, the leadership and headquarters of the Colony and the Company were united in America.

Charlestown was the first capital of Massachusetts Bay, but the water there was inadequate, so it was moved across the Charles River to Boston.

The idea that this colony was a community with a special covenant with God was laid out in Winthrop's sermon, "A City upon a Hill." The idea that theirs was a holy community shaped life in the colony enormously, making it imperative that colonists legislate morality, enforcing marriage, church attendance, and education in the Word of God as well as relentlessly seeking out and punishing sin and sinners.

The colony celebrated its first Thanksgiving Day on July 8, 1630.

Massachusetts Bay continued its rapid growth, in spite of serious difficulties. During the first winter (1630-1631), over 200 died. When the next ships came, more chose to return to England. This was, in fact, the only tragic winter faced by the young colony. Since the pressures on the Puritan non-conformists at home continued, so did increasing and rapid immigration, and by the end of 1631 the colony numbered over 2,000. Over the next several years, as Archbishop Laud continued to add rigor to the Church hierarchy, the growth continued. Ministers rejected in England also made the trip with their flocks, so John Cotton, Roger Williams, Thomas Hooker, and others became leaders of Puritan congregations in Massachusetts.

The seeds of democracy

The colony's charter granted to the Massachusetts General Court the authority to elect officers and to make laws. Their first meeting in America was held October of 1630, but was attended by only eight freemen. They voted to grant all legislative, executive, and judicial power to a "Council" of the Governor's assistants (those same eight men). They then set up town boundaries, created taxes, and elected officers. To quell unrest caused by this limited franchise, they added 118 settlers to the court as freemen, but power remained with the council. The first murmers against the system arose when a tax was imposed on the entire colony in 1632, but Winthrop was able to quiet fears.

In 1634, the issue of governance arose again, and a group headed by Thomas Dudley demanded to see the charter. They learned of the provisions that the general court should make all laws, and that all freemen should be members. They demanded that it be enforced to the letter, but eventually reached a compromise with governor Winthrop. They agreed to a General Court made up of two delegates elected by each town, the Governor's council of advisors, and the Governor himself. This court was to have authority over "The raising up public stock" (taxes) and "what they shold agree upon should bind all." What Wintrop did not expect was that binding included the election of the governor, and Dudley was elected. The first revolution was complete, and a trading company had become a representative democracy. By 1641, they had added the first code of laws (the Massachusetts Body of Liberties) written by Nathaniel Ward, that specified required behavior and punishments.

Later history

The Province of New Hampshire was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1641 to 1679, and again from 1688 to 1691.

In 1643, Massachusetts Bay joined Plymouth Colony, Connecticut Colony, and New Haven Colony in the Confederation of New England, which fell apart in the 1650s.

From 1686 Massachusetts Bay was administratively unified by the English king with the other New England colonies in the Dominion of New England. In 1688, the Province of New York, East Jersey, and West Jersey were added. In 1689, the Dominion was dissolved with the overthrow of the king.

In 1691-2, Massachusetts Bay was unified with Plymouth Colony, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, the Province of Maine and what is now Nova Scotia to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

Governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

(For a list sorted by date, see Governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony)

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