The Cambridge Agreement''The Cambridge Agreement''

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was signed, on August 29, 1629, between the

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal o ...

s of the Massachusetts Bay Company, at

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. Under its terms, those who intended to emigrate to the

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could purchase shares held by those shareholders who wanted to remain

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. Thus the

agreement Agreement may refer to: Agreements between people and organizations * Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law * Trade agreement, between countries * Consensus, a decision-making process * Contract, enforceable in a court of law ** Meeting ...

was a precursor to the foundation of Boston, Massachusetts. The Cambridge Agreement stipulated that the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), 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 th ...

would be under

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, rather than controlled by a corporate board based in

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. Not all the shareholders of the Company had any intention of emigrating, despite their

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

sympathies. In return for guaranteeing local control over the colony, the non-emigrating shareholders were bought out by the emigrating shareholders. John Winthrop led the Company's emigrating party following these negotiations and was elected Colonial Governor in October 1629. The agreement guaranteed the Massachusetts Colony would be self-governing, answerable only to the English Crown. The Colony and the Company then became, to all intents and purposes, one and the same. Winthrop's Puritans carried this Charter across the Atlantic arriving at America in 1630. 12 Signatories: * Richard Saltonstall * Thomas Dudley *

William Vassall English colonist William Vassall (1592-1656) is remembered both for promoting religious freedom in New England and commencing his family's ownership of slave plantations in the Caribbean. A patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Company, Vassall was amo ...

* Nicholas West *

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* John Humphrey * Thomas Sharp *

Increase Nowell Increase Nowell, (1590–1655), was a British colonial administrator, original patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Company, founder of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and first ruling elder of the First Church in Charlestown. He was baptized in 1593 at ...

* John Winthrop *

William Pynchon William Pynchon (October 11, 1590 – October 29, 1662) was an English colonist and fur trader in North America best known as the founder of Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. He was also a colonial treasurer, original patentee of the Massach ...

* Kellam Browne * William Colbron

References

Further reading

Notes