said Council of State, and of two Burgesses out of every Town, Hundred, or other particular Plantation, to be respectively chosen by the Inhabitants: Which Council shall be called THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, wherein (as also in the said Council of State) all Matters shall be decided, determined, and ordered, by the greater Part of the Voices then present; reserving to the Governor always a Negative Voice. And this General Assembly shall have free Power to treat, consult, and conclude, as well of all emergent Occasions concerning the Publick Weal of the said Colony and every Part thereof, as also to make, ordain, and enact such general Laws and Orders, for the Behoof of the said Colony, and the good Government thereof, as shall, from time to time, appear necessary or requisite; V. WHEREAS in all other Things, we require the said General Assembly, as also the said Council of State, to imitate and follow the Policy of the Form of Government, Laws, Customs, and Manner of Trial, and other Administration of Justice, used in the Realm of England, as near as may be, even as ourselves, by his Majesty's Letters Patent are required. VI. PROVIDED, that no Law or Ordinance, made in the said General Assembly, shall be or continue in Force or Validity, unless the same shall be solemnly ratified and confirmed, in a General Quarter Court of the said Company here in England, and so ratified, be returned to them under our Seal; It being our Intent to afford the like Measure also unto the said Colony, that after the Government of the said Colony shall once have been well framed, and settled accordingly, which is to be done by Us, as by Authority derived from his Majesty, and the same shall have been so by us declared, no Orders of Court afterwards shall bind the said Colony, unless they be ratified in like Manner in the General Assemblies. No. 7. Grant of Maine to Gorges and Mason August 10/20, 1622 JOHN MASON was a member of the Council for New England, a churchman, and a friend of Gorges. His chief interests in America seem to have been in connection with the Laconia Company, organized to carry on the fur trade▾ with Canada; and he did not develop any of the various grants received from the Council for New England. Only so much of the patent of 1622 is here given as defines the boundaries of the grant. REFERENCES. Text in Ballard's Memorial Volume of the Popham Celebration, Appendix, 121–123. [The patent recites the grant of 1620 to the Council for New England, and continues:] Now this Indenture witnesseth that the said President and Councill . . . doe give grant . . . and confirme unto the said Sir Ferdinando Gorges & Captain John Mason their heirs and assignes all that part of the maine land in New England lying upon the Sea Coast betwixt the rivers of Merrimack & Sagadahock and to the furthest heads of the said Rivers and soe forwards up into the land westward untill threescore miles be finished from the first entrance of the aforesaid rivers and half way over that is to say to the midst of the said two rivers which bounds and limitts the lands aforesaid togeather with all Islands & Isletts within five leagues distance of the said premisses and abutting upon the same or any part or parcell thereoff. . . which said porcons of lands with the appurtenances the said Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Capt. John Mason with the consent of the President & Councell intend to name the PROVINCE OF MAINE. .. No. 8. First Charter of Massachusetts March 4/14, 1628/9 THE attempt of the Dorchester Adventurers to establish a colony on Cape Ann, in 1623, as a base for fishing operations, failed; but there were a few scattered settlements in the region of Massachusetts Bay when, March 19/29, 1627/8, a grant for a land and trading company was obtained from the Council for New England. The patent was confirmed, with the addition of powers of government, by the royal charter of March 4/14, 1628/9. A local government, known as "London's Plantation in Massachusetts Bay in New England," was established at Salem, under the direction of John Endicott. In 1630 the charter and government of the colony were transferred to America, and the local government under Endicott was discontinued. The charter remained in force until 1684, when it was annulled by writ of quo warranto. REFERENCES. Text in Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, I., 3–19. The grant of 1627/8 is recited in the charter. Important contemporary documents and accounts are collected in Young's Chronicles of Massachusetts. See also Winthrop's His tory of New England (Savage's ed.), I.; Winthrop's Life and Letters of John Winthrop, II.; Memorial History of Boston, I., 87-98; Ellis's Puritan Age and Rule, chaps. 2 and 7; Sainsbury's Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, I.; Doyle's Puritan Colonies, I., chap. 3. [The charter begins with a recital of the patent of 1620 to the Council for New England, and the subsequent grant by the Council, in March, 1627/8, to Sir Henry Rosewell and others, which last-mentioned grant is by this present charter confirmed, and continues:] AND FURTHER knowe yee, That . . . Wee . . . by theis presents doe . . . give and graunt unto the said Sir Henry Rosewell, Sir John Younge, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Thomas Southcott, John Humfrey, John Endecott, Symon Whetcombe, Isaack Johnson, Samuell Aldersey, John Ven, Mathewe Cradock, George Harwood, Increase Nowell, Richard Pery, Richard Bellingham, Nathaniel Wright, Samuell Vassall, Theophilus Eaton, Thomas Goffe, Thomas Adams, John Browne, Samuell Browne, Thomas Hutchins, William Vassall, William Pinchion, and George Foxcrofte, theire heires and assignes, All that parte of Newe England in America which lyes and extendes betweene a great river there commonlie called Monomack river, alias Merrimack river, and a certen other river there called Charles river, being in the bottome of a certen bay there commonlie called Massachusetts, alias Mattachusetts, alias Massatusetts bay: And also all and singuler those landes and hereditaments whatsoever, lyeing within the space of three Englishe myles on the south parte of the saide river called Charles river, or of any or every parte thereof: And also all and singuler the landes and hereditaments whatsoever lyeing and being within the space of three Englishe myles to the southward of the southernmost parte of the said baye called Massachusetts... : And also all those landes and hereditaments whatsoever which lye and be within the space of three English myles to the northward of the saide river called Monomack, alias Merrymack, or to the northward of any and every parte thereof, and all landes and hereditaments whatsoever, lyeing within the lymitts aforesaide, north and south, in latitude and bredth, and in length and longitude, of and within all the bredth aforesaide, throughout the mayne landes there from the Atlantick and westerne sea and ocean on the east parte, to the south sea on the west parte: . . . and also all islandes in America aforesaide, in the saide seas, or either of them, on the westerne or easterne coastes, or partes of the said tracts of landes hereby mentioned to be given and graunted . . ., and all mynes and myneralls, aswell royall mynes of gould and silver as other mynes and myneralls whatsoever. and free libertie of fishing in or within any the rivers or waters within the boundes and lymytts aforesaid, and the seas thereunto adjoining: And all fishes, royal fishes, whales, balan, sturgions, and other fishes, of what kinde or nature soever that shall . . . be taken in . . . the saide seas or waters. . . by the said Sir Henry Rosewell . . . [and others] . or by any person or persons whatsoever there inhabiting, by them, or any of them, to be appointed to fishe therein. PROVIDED, alwayes, that yf the said landes, islandes, or any other the premisses herein. before mentioned, and by theis presents intended and meant to be graunted, were, at the tyme of the graunting of the saide former letters patents. . . [of 1620]. . . actuallie possessed or inhabited by any other Christian Prince or State, or were within the boundes... of that Southerne Colony then before graunted by our said late father to be planted . . . in the south partes of America, That then this present graunt shall not extend to any such partes. . ., but as to those partes . . . shalbe utterly voyd. [To be held in free and common socage, and paying one fifth part of all gold and silver ores.] AND FORASMUCH as the good and prosperous successe of the plantation of the saide partes of Newe England aforesaide intended by the said Sir Henry Rosewell... [and others] . . . to be speedily sett upon, cannot but cheifly depend, next under the blessing of Almightie God and the support of our royall authoritie, upon the good government of the same, To the ende that the affaires and buyssinesses which, from tyme to tyme, shall happen and arise concerning the saide landes and the plantation of the same, maie be the better mannaged and ordered . . . wee will and ordeyne, That the saide Sir Henry Rosewell . . . [and others]. . ., and all such others as shall hereafter be admitted and made free of the Company and Society hereafter mentioned, shall . . . be . . . one body corporate and politique in fact and name, by the name of the Governor and Company of the Mattachusetts Bay in Newe England. . ., and by that name they shall have perpetuall succession: And that by the same name they . . . shall, and maie be capeable and enabled, aswell to implead and to be impleaded, and to prosecute, de ... ... maund, and aunswere, and be answeared unto, in all . . . suites, causes, quarrells, and actions of what kinde or nature soever. And also to . . . acquire . . . any landes, tenements, or hereditaments, or any goodes or chattells, And the same to . . . dispose of as other our liege people of this our realme of England, or any other corporation or body politique of the same maie lawfullie doe: [They may have a seal.] And wee doe hereby . . . graunte, That . . . there shalbe one Governor, one Deputy Governor, and eighteene Assistants. . ., to be from tyme to tyme ... chosen out of the freemen of the saide Company, for the tyme being, in such manner and forme as hereafter in theis presents is expressed. Which said officers shall applie themselves to take care for the best disposeing and ordering of the generall buysines and affaires of ... the saide landes and premisses ..., and the plantacion thereof, and the government of the people there. And for the better execution of our royall pleasure and graunte in this behalf, wee doe . . . nominate . . . the saide Mathewe Cradocke to be the first and present Governor of the said Company, and the saide Thomas Goffe to be Deputy Gov . . ., and the said Sir Richard Saltonstall, Isaack Johnson, Samuell Aldersey, John Ven, John Humfrey, John Endecott, Simon Whetcombe, Increase Noell, Richard Pery, Nathaniell Wright, Samuell Vassall, Theophilus Eaton, Thomas Adams, Thomas Hutchins, John Browne, George Foxcrofte, William Vassall, and William Pinchion to be the present Assistants . . ., to continue in the saide severall offices respectivelie for such tyme and in such manner as in and by theis presents is hereafter declared and appointed. [The Governor or Deputy Governor may give order for the assembling of the Company.] And that the said Governor, Deputie Governor, and Assistants . . . shall or maie once every moneth, or oftener at their pleasures, assemble, and houlde, and keepe a Courte or Assemblie of themselves, for the better ordering and directing of their affaires. [Seven or more Assistants, with the Governor or Deputy Governor, to be a sufficient Court.] and that there shall or maie be held. upon every last Wednesday in Hillary, Easter, Trinity, and Michas termes respectivelie for ever, one greate, generall, and solempe Assemblie, which foure General Assemblies shalbe stiled and called the Foure Greate and Generall Courts of the saide Company: In all and every or any of which saide Greate and Generall |