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The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, 1619.
The First Virginia General Assembly convened from October 7, 1776, to December 21, 1776, in regular session. [1] This session took place while the Second Continental Congress was still in session. Major events
Founded in 1619, the Virginia General Assembly is still in existence as the oldest legislature in the New World. In colonial Virginia, the lower house of the legislature was called the House of Burgesses. Together with the Governor's Council, the House of Burgesses made up the "General Assembly".
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a dispute over the British Parliament's right to enact domestic legislation for the American colonies. The British government's position was that Parliament's authority was unlimited, while the American position was that colonial legislatures were coequal with Parliament and outside of its jurisdiction.
In 1776, Pennsylvania's first state constitution referred to it as both Commonwealth and State, a pattern of usage that was perpetuated in the constitutions of 1790, 1838, 1874, and 1968. [15] [c] One of Pennsylvania's two intermediate appellate courts is called the Commonwealth Court.
In January 2019, to mark the 400th anniversary of the House of Burgesses, the Virginia House of Representatives Clerk's Office announced a new Database of House Members called "DOME" that "[chronicles] the 9,700-plus men and women who served as burgesses or delegates in the Virginia General Assembly over the past four centuries." [44] [45] [46]
The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624), by Capt. John Smith, one of the first histories of Virginia. The written history of Virginia begins with documentation by the first Spanish explorers to reach the area in the 16th century, when it was occupied chiefly by Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan peoples.
The Virginia State Capitol is the seat of state government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in Richmond, the state capital. It houses the oldest elected legislative body in North America, the Virginia General Assembly , first established as the House of Burgesses in 1619.