MASSACHUSETTS
[See Virginia, p. 3783.]
THE CHARTER OF NEW ENGLAND—1620[3]
JAMES, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. to all whom these Presents shall come, Greeting, Whereas, upon the humble Petition of divers of our well disposed Subjects, that intended to make several Plantations in the Parts of America, between the Degrees of thirty-ffoure and ffourty-five; We according to our princely Inclination, favouring much their worthy Disposition, in Hope thereby to advance the in Largement of Christian Religion, to the Glory of God Almighty, as also by that Meanes to streatch out the Bounds of our Dominions, and to replenish those Deserts with People governed by Lawes and Magistrates, for the peaceable Commerce of all, that in time to come shall have occasion to traffique into those Territoryes, granted unto Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Knights, Thomas Hamon, and Raleigh Gilbert, Esquires, and of their Associates, for the more speedy Accomplishment thereof, by our Letters-Pattent, bearing Date the Tenth Day of Aprill, in the Fourth Year of our Reign of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the ffourtieth, free Liberty to divide themselves into two several Collonyes; the one called the first Collonye, to be undertaken and advanced by certain Knights, Gentlemen, and Merchants, in and about our Cyty of London; the other called the Second Collonye, to be undertaken and advanced by certaine Knights, Gentlemen, and Merchants, and their associates, in and about our Citties of Bristol, Exon, and our Towne of
- ↑ The compact with the Charter and Laws of the Colony of New Plymouth: together with the charter of the Council at Plymouth, and an Appendix, containing the Articles of Confederation of the United Colonies of New England and other valuable documents. Published agreeably to a resolve, passed April 5, 1836, under the supervision of William Brigham, Counsellor at Law, Boston, 1836. Pp. 1–18.
- ↑ This charter, which was granted by James I of Great Britain, gave the lands along the North American coast, between the thirty-fourth and the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, to two companies, one of which had its headquarters at London and the other at Plymouth, England. The Plymouth, or second company, at once commenced colonizing the coast of New England, which was especially assigned to it.
- ↑ The London Company, organized under the charter of 1606, received a new charter in 1609, as the South Virginia Company, and the Plymouth Company was reorganized in 1620, “for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of New England in America.”
