proprietary colonies

Examples of proprietary colonies in the following topics:

• English Administration of the Colonies

  • Britain's 13 North American colonies reflected different structures of government: provincial, proprietary, and charter.
  • By 1776, Britain had evolved three different forms of government for its North American colonies: provincial, proprietary, and charter.
  • Proprietary colonies included Pennsylvania (which included Delaware at the time), New Jersey, and Maryland.
  • Proprietary colonies were owned by a person (always a white male) or family, who could make laws and appoint officials as he or they pleased.
  • Proprietary colonies were governed much as provincial colonies except that Lords Proprietors, rather than the king, appointed the governor.

• Georgia

  • The Province of Georgia was chartered as a proprietary colony in 1733 and was the last of the 13 original British colonies.
  • The Province of Georgia, also called Georgia Colony, was one of the southern colonies in British America and the last of the 13 original colonies established by Great Britain.
  • In 1755, Georgia officially ceased to be a trustee colony and became a crown colony.
  • In practice, settlement in the colony was limited to the vicinity near the Savannah River.
  • The Georgia Colony would act as a "buffer state" (border) or "garrison province" that would defend the southern part of the British colonies from Spanish Florida.

• Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine

  • The designation of colonial New England included colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
  • Two small proprietary colonies were set up - one in New Hampshire and one in Maine.
  • Connecticut was formed as a migration from the Massachusetts colony.
  • This is a map showing the Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies from 1636-1776.
  • Analyze and discuss the founding of the New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Maine Colonies in New England.

• The Rise of the Assemblies

  • Prior to 1776 there were three forms of colonial government: provincial, proprietary, and charter.
  • The proprietary colonies included Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland.
  • The proprietary colonies were created after the Restoration of 1660 and typically enjoyed greater civil and religious liberty than other colonies.
  • The essential difference between the charter colonies and the proprietory and provincal colonies was that property-owning men in the charter colonies could elect their own governors.
  • As the only electable body in the colonial political system, the colonial assemblies were also responsible for approving new local taxes and colonial government budgets.

• Maryland

  • The province began as a proprietary colony of the English Lord Baltimore and as a haven for English Roman Catholics in the New World.
  • Colonial Maryland was larger than the present-day state of Maryland.
  • Passed by the assembly of the Maryland colony, it was the first law requiring religious tolerance in the British North American colonies.
  • The Protestant Revolution of 1689 was an event in Maryland when Puritans, by then a substantial majority in the colony, revolted against the proprietary government, in part because of the apparent preferment of Catholics to official positions of power.
  • Up to the time of the American Revolution, Maryland, along with Pennsylvania, was one of two remaining English proprietary colonies.

• English Colonies

  • There were three types of British colonies: Joint Stock, Royal, and Proprietary.
  • A single person or family owned proprietary colonies, also called charter colonies.
  • The Jamestown colony became a small city within the larger colony of Virginia (which became an economically successful colony due to tobacco).
  • New Jersey began as a division of New York, and was for a time divided into the proprietary colonies of East and West Jersey.
  • The colonial South included the plantation colonies of the Chesapeake region and the lower South.

• Conclusion: Patterns of British Settlement in the Colonies

  • Through the 17th century, Great Britain established 13 colonies in North America and greatly expanded its colonial reach.
  • In addition to wresting control of New York and New Jersey from the Dutch, Charles II established the Carolinas and Pennsylvania as proprietary colonies.
  • The early colonies also contributed to the rise in population in English America as many thousands of Europeans made their way to the colonies.
  • The colonies differed substantially in their economics; while northern colonies relied heavily on the emergence of industry and the production of goods to sell or trade, southern colonies arose out of agriculture and the production of staple crops.
  • Southern colonies especially relied on slavery, but all colonies benefited from the institution.

• Settling the Southern Colonies

  • The colonies were originally chartered to compete in the race for colonies in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.
  • The province began as a proprietary colony of the English Lord Baltimore, who wished to create a haven for Roman Catholics in the New World at the time of the European wars of religion.
  • Charles I eventually granted proprietary charters to the Plymouth Company and the London Company.
  • The Province of Georgia (also called the Georgia Colony) was the last of the 13 original colonies established by Great Britain.
  • Summarize the major events in the development of the Southern Colonies

• The Coming of the English

  • Roanoke is still called “the Lost Colony” today.
  • Most of the new English colonies established in North America and the West Indies, whether successful or otherwise, were proprietary colonies.
  • The colony survived and flourished by developing tobacco as a cash crop for the colony; it served as a beginning for the colonial state of Virginia.
  • Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 as a proprietary colony of the Quaker, William Penn.
  • The colonial South included the plantation colonies of the Chesapeake region—Virginia and Maryland—and the lower South colonies of Carolina and Georgia.

• Settling the Middle Colonies

  • The Middle Colonies consisted of the middle region of the Thirteen Colonies of the British Empire in North America.
  • As a proprietary colony, Penn governed Pennsylvania, yet its citizens were still subject to the English crown and laws.
  • The Middle Colonies tended to mix aspects of the New England and Southern Colonies.
  • Its large exports led to its constituent colonies becoming known as the Bread Basket Colonies.
  • Compare the culture of the Middle Colonies with that of other English colonies