The Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company was an English royal charter which formally incorporated the

joint-stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's capital stock, stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their share (finance), shares (certificates ...

for the colonization of

Massachusetts Bay Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Gulf of Maine that forms part of the central coastline of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Description The bay extends from Cape Ann on the north to Plymouth Harbor on the south, a distance of about . Its ...

. The charter, granted by

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of ...

in 1628, defined the regulations of the company, the land it would be granted, as well as the rights and privileges of the colonists.

History

After the failure of the Dorchester Company in founding a settlement on

Cape Ann Cape Ann is a rocky peninsula in northeastern Massachusetts, United States on the Atlantic Ocean. It is about northeast of Boston and marks the northern limit of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester and the towns of ...

the settlers and shareholders of the company wished to form another colonial settlement this time further south. The colony was to be settled between the

Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...

and the

Merrimack River The Merrimack River (or Merrimac River, an occasional earlier spelling) is a river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Mas ...

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. The Massachusetts Bay Company, like other colonial joint-stock companies, was to be a corporate entity as well as a governmental one. The first settlers of the colony were

Puritans 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. P ...

who sought to create a society based on their religious beliefs unfettered from the Royal

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

government of the

Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. On 1 ...

. The settlers were to be shareholders, with all those wishing to emigrate to new England required to buy shares. This agreement was formulated in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and came to be known as the

Cambridge Agreement The Cambridge Agreement''T ...

. Unlike other colonial companies whose presiding members resided and met in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, the governors and other colonial officials moved to New England as well. The government consisted of a

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

, Deputy Governor, a council of assistants who would provide legal counsel and jurisprudence, and a General Court of delegates elected from each town. Voting rights in the colony were to be for only men of the

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

church. Once settled in what is now

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, the delegates formed a quasi-democratic and

theocratic Theocracy is a form of government in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the government's daily affairs. Etymology The word theocracy originates fro ...

state based on the

Laws of Moses The Law of Moses ( he, תֹּורַת מֹשֶׁה ), also called the Mosaic Law, primarily refers to the Torah or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. The law revealed to Moses by God. Terminology The Law of Moses or Torah of Moses (Hebrew ...

.Morison 1917, p.8. The charter served as the constitution of the colony. It was revoked by an English court in 1684, but continued to served as a ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' constitution until the creation of the

Dominion of New England The Dominion of New England in America (1686–1689) was an administrative union of English colonies covering New England and the Mid-Atlantic Colonies (except for Delaware Colony and the Province of Pennsylvania). Its political structure represe ...

in 1686. Following the

1689 Boston revolt The 1689 Boston revolt was a popular uprising on April 18, 1689, against the rule of Sir Edmund Andros, the governor of the Dominion of New England. A well-organized "mob" of provincial militia and citizens formed in the town of Boston, the cap ...

and collapse of the Dominion, it again served as the governing document until the issuance of the royal charter for the

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the Thirteen Colonies, thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III of England, William III and Mary II ...

in 1692

References

* * *{{cite book, last= Moore, first=Jacob Bailey, title=Lives of the Governors of New Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, location=Boston, year=1851, publisher=C. D. Strong, url=https://archive.org/details/livesgovernorsn00moorgoog, page
273
}

External links

1628 establishments in England 1684 disestablishments in Massachusetts 1628 in law 1628 works 17th-century documents Colonial Massachusetts History of Massachusetts Legal history of Massachusetts Political history of Massachusetts Political charters

History

See also

References

External links