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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 British monarch issued colonial charters that established either royal colonies, proprietary colonies, or corporate colonies. In every colony, a governor led the executive branch, and the legislative branch was divided into two houses: a governor's council and a representative assembly. Men who met property qualifications elected the ...
Proprietary colonies in America were governed by a lord proprietor, who, holding authority by virtue of a royal charter, usually exercised that authority almost as an independent sovereign. [1] These colonies were distinct from Crown colonies in that they were commercial enterprises established under authority of the crown.
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. Colonial charters were approved when the king gave a grant of exclusive powers for the governance of land to proprietors or a settlement company.
In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic launched major colonization expeditions in North America. [1] The death rate was very high among early immigrants, and some early attempts disappeared altogether, such as the English Lost Colony of Roanoke. Nevertheless, successful colonies were established within several ...
The population of the Thirteen Colonies grew immensely in the 18th century. According to historian Alan Taylor, the population was 1.5 million in 1750, which represented four-fifths of the population of British North America. [33] More than 90 percent of the colonists lived as farmers, though some seaports also flourished.
In contrast to egalitarian and collectivist New England Colonies to the north, settlers of the Southern Colonies in Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, and Georgia recreated a hierarchical social order governed by an aristocratic American gentry which would dominate the antebellum Old South for generations.
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 who sought to create a society based on their religious beliefs unfettered from the Royal Anglican government of the Kingdom of England. The settlers were to be ...