Royal charter

Examples of Royal charter in the following topics:

• State Constitutions

  • New constitutions were used in each colony to supersede royal charters, and the colonies declared themselves states.
  • Rhode Island and Connecticut simply took their existing royal charters and deleted all references to the crown.

• The Carolinas

  • The Province of Carolina was originally chartered in 1629.
  • The 1663 charter granted the Lords Proprietor title to all of the land from the southern border of the Virginia Colony to the coast of present-day Georgia.
  • The Albemarle Settlements, which preceded the royal charter by 10 years, came to be known in Virginia as "Rogues' Harbor."
  • The Lords Proprietors, operating under their royal charter, were able to exercise their authority with nearly the autonomy of the king himself.
  • Another rebellion against the proprietors broke out in 1719, which led to the appointment of a royal governor for South Carolina in 1720.

• Jamestown, Virginia

  • English entrepreneurs set sail with a charter in 1606 and arrived on April 10, 1607.
  • Simultaneously, however, Virginia was declared a "crown colony", meaning that charter was transferred from the Virginia Company to the Crown of England, making Jamestown a colony now run by the English monarchy.
  • While the House of Burgesses was still allowed to run the government, the king nevertheless appointed a royal governor to settle disputes and enforce certain British policies.
  • In 1624, King James revoked the Virginia Company's charter, and Virginia became a royal colony.
  • The legislature temporarily relocated to Middle Plantation and was able to meet in the new facilities of the College of William and Mary, which had been established after receiving a royal charter in 1693.

• The Glorious Revolution in America

  • He had revoked the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter in 1684 after its Puritan rulers refused to act on his demands to streamline the administration of the small colonies and bring them more closely under the crown's control.
  • He mistreated the royal troops stationed in Boston, whose officers included Anglicans and Roman Catholics.
  • The Massachusetts agents then petitioned the new monarchs and the Lords of Trade (who oversaw colonial affairs) for restoration of the Massachusetts charter.
  • Plymouth had never had a royal charter, and Massachusetts' had been legally vacated.
  • Agents for both colonies worked in England to rectify the charter issues.

• Troubled Neighbors

  • In 1634, Maryland, a narrow strip of land north of Virginia and south of Pennsylvania, was settled as a Catholic colony via a royal charter.
  • Fifteen years later, in 1649, the Act of Toleration proclaimed religious freedom for its colonists, among whom Protestants would become the majority despite the original charter.
  • She defied gender roles in the colonies by being the first woman of non-royal heritage to govern an English colony.
  • The original charter of Pennsylvania also encompassed present-day Delaware, but the people of Delaware, who were mostly non-Quakers, separated from Pennsylvania in 1704.
  • The charter for Georgia, the last of the thirteen original colonies, was granted to James Oglethorpe and others in 1732 .

• Pennsylvania and Delaware

  • In 1681, William Penn founded the Province of Pennsylvania, also known as Pennsylvania Colony, in British America by royal charter.
  • Penn received the charter for Pennsylvania from Charles II and brought over Quaker dissidents from England, Wales, the Netherlands, and France.
  • The Charter of Privileges mandated fair dealings with American Indians.
  • William Penn and his fellow Quakers imprinted their religious values on the early Pennsylvanian government; the Charter of Privileges extended religious freedom to all monotheists, and the government was initially open to all Christians.

• The Dominion of New England

  • He disregarded local representation, denied the validity of existing land titles in Massachusetts (which had been dependent on the old charter), restricted town meetings, and actively promoted the Church of England in largely Puritan regions.
  • After the Glorious Revolution and the ascent of William and Mary, the Massachusetts agents then petitioned the new monarchs and the Lords of Trade (who oversaw colonial affairs) for restoration of the Massachusetts charter.
  • Rhode Island and Connecticut resumed governance under their earlier charters, and Massachusetts resumed governance according to its vacated charter after being temporarily governed by a committee composed of magistrates, Massachusetts Bay officials, and a majority of Andros' council.
  • Plymouth had never had a royal charter, and Massachusetts had been legally vacated.
  • Agents for both colonies worked in England to rectify the charter issues.

• 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.
  • Provincial colonies, also known as royal colonies, were under the direct control of the king, who usually appointed a royal governor.
  • Massachusetts began as a charter colony in 1684 but became a provincial colony in 1691.
  • In a charter colony, Britain granted a charter to the colonial government establishing the rules under which the colony was to be governed.

• The Conquest of New York

  • The Dutch colony of New Netherland was captured by the British and chartered by the Duke of York, who later became James II of England.
  • In March, 1665, the Duke of York was granted a Royal colony which included New Netherland and present-day Maine.
  • The New Netherland claim included western parts of present-day Massachusetts, putting the new province in conflict with the Massachusetts charter.
  • New York became a royal province in February of 1685 when its proprietor, the Duke of York, was crowned King James II of England.

• The Founding of Carolina

  • The Province of Carolina, originally chartered in 1629, was an English and later British colony of North America.
  • A group of eight men were rewarded for their faithful support of Charles II following the 1660 restoration of the monarchy of Britain with the charter to a colony in the new world .
  • A rebellion against the proprietors broke out in 1719 which led to the appointment of a royal governor for South Carolina in 1720.
  • After nearly a decade in which the British government sought to locate and buy out the proprietors, both North and South Carolina became royal colonies in 1729.