1640 there were eight towns with 2500 inhabitants in the Plymouth Colony. Outside the limits of the Colony several scattered settlements were made in Boston Harbor between 1623 and 1628.
In 1628 an expedition organized by an English company and commanded by John Endicott landed at Salem. The company had obtained a grant of the territory lying between the Atlantic and Pacific and extending to a point three miles south of the river Charles and three miles north of the river Merrimac. After persistent efforts a royal patent was obtained for ‘the Governor and company’ of the Massachusetts Bay, and the associates were constituted a body politic, with a Governor, deputy, and eighteen assistants to be annually elected, and a general assembly of the freemen, with legislative powers to meet four times in a year, or oftener if necessary. Measures contrary to English laws and statutes were forbidden by the charter, but religious liberty was not named in the document, though this was the ultimate aim of the emigrants. In 1629 the colony was reënforced and the government and patent of the company were transferred from London to New England. The old officers resigned, giving place to others chosen from among those who were about to emigrate, John Winthrop being elected Governor. The Colony grew rapidly. The conflict between the Puritans and Charles I. brought about a large emigration to Massachusetts, and between 1630 and 1640 about 20,000 persons arrived in the Colony. Charlestown, Boston, Watertown, Dorchester, Roxbury, Mystic, Saugus (Lynn), and other places were settled at this period. The settlers of Massachusetts Bay, as distinguished from the Plymouth pilgrims, were wealthy, and as a rule of a higher social class. They came in congregations under the lead of their ministers, who were graduates of the English universities. Fraternal relations were quickly established between the two colonies, however. Education was fostered from the beginning. Harvard College was founded in 1630, and in 1642 a system of public schools was organized. Having no charter to occasion disputes, Plymouth Colony prospered peacefully and monotonously, and its history is unmarred by records of religious narrowness; but Massachusetts Bay was in turmoil from the first, owing to its theocratic government and the stern and arbitrary conduct of the magistrates. It was the desire to escape from the yoke of the Massachusetts theocracy that led to the settlement of Rhode Island and Connecticut. Prejudiced by the dissensions between magistrates and people, and by the fear that the Colony would become independent, the Crown demanded back the charter in 1634; but the colonists evaded the order, made preparations to resist, and were fortunate in having attention diverted from them by the political troubles in England. To strengthen itself, the Bay Government exacted an oath of allegiance in 1633-34, and that he had opposed this oath as well as the patent was the main reason for the banishment of Roger Williams (q.v.). The banishment of Anne Hutchinson (q.v.) and the hanging of Quakers were excused by the authorities on the ground that their teachings endangered the stability of the government; and the same spirit was at the basis of the act which made church membership a qualification for the franchise, and finally made the Congregational the established Church of the Colony (1651). In 1643 Massachusetts Bay united with Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven to form the New England Confederacy, for protection against the Indians and the Dutch.
The restoration of the Stuarts was followed by fresh disputes with the Crown, but in 1662 the King confirmed the Massachusetts charter, and made a conditional promise of amnesty for past political offenses. He insisted, however, upon his right to interfere in the affairs of the Colony, required the complete toleration of the Church of England, the taking of an oath of allegiance, and the administration of justice in his name. Commissioners were sent over from England to investigate the affairs of the Colony, but they met with defiance from the magistrates and could accomplish nothing. The contest with the Crown continued in spite of the pressure of the Indian War (1675-76), in which the New England colonies were plunged. (See Philip, King.) Charles II. was incensed at the independent course of the Colony in assuming certain sovereign powers, as it had done in coining money, or taking possession of the Maine settlements. The English merchants were irritated by the active trade that was carried on illegally with the West Indies and Europe, Edmund Randolph (q.v,) urged on the English Government against the Colony, and Massachusetts, under its theocracy, on its side, would make no concession. In 1684 the charter of the Colony was declared forfeited, the General Court was dissolved, and a royal commission superseded the charter government. In 1686 Sir Edmund Andros was made Governor, and ruled without restraint and without sense. When news of the landing of William of Orange in England arrived, the people of Boston threw Andros into prison, reinstated the old magistrates, and revived the General Court. In 1692 a new charter was granted uniting Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth. Its terms, however, were less favorable than the old charter, in that the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Secretary were to be appointed by the King, and the members of the Assembly were to be elected by freeholders instead of church members. In 1692-93 the witchcraft delusion broke out in Salem and vicinity, but the excitement was short-lived, and was confined to a limited area. (See Witchcraft.) In 1703-04 and 1722-25 there were wars with the Indians. The Colony aided England zealously in her contest with France, notably in the capture of Port Royal (1690), and of Louisburg (1745). (See Pepperrell, William.) In the early French and Indian wars the settlers of western Massachusetts suffered greatly at the hands of the Indians; towns like Haverhill and Deerfield were subjected to pillage, many of the inhabitants were massacred, and the survivors led away into captivity. In 1765 the population of Massachusetts was about 240,000, falling into well defined classes, but all equal in political power, and held firmly together by the consciousness of a common origin and the possession of a common creed. The austerity of seventeenth-century Puritanism had passed away in great measure, but Church and State were still connected, and the Great Revival of 1740 showed how deeply faith lay rooted in the hearts of the people. The first printing press had been brought over in 1639, and a newspaper, the Boston News Letter, was issued in 1704. Educational institutions were
