House of Burgesses

(noun)

The first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America.

Related Terms

Examples of House of Burgesses in the following topics:

  • Powers of the Assemblies

    • Assemblies were elected and were called the House of Delegates, House of Burgesses, or Assembly of Freemen.
    • The colonial Assemblies had a variety of titles, such as House of Delegates, House of Burgesses, or Assembly of Freemen.
    • The House of Burgesses was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America.
    • The House of Burgesses consisted of delegates elected by the colonists .
    • Patrick Henry in the House of Burgesses, by Peter F.

  • Governors and Assemblies

    • The colonial assemblies had a variety of titles, such as House of Delegates, House of Burgesses, or Assembly of Freemen.
    • The House of Burgesses was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America.
    • The word burgess means an elected or appointed official of a municipality or the representative of a borough in the English House of Commons.
    • In 1769, the Virginia House of Burgesses asserted that only Virginia's governor and legislature could tax its citizens.
    • Jennings House was the residence of the governors of Maryland from 1777 until 1870.

  • Liberty and Property

    • The Declaration of Rights raised fourteen points of colonial protest.
    • In Virginia, a series of resolutions were passed by the Virginia House of Burgesses in response to the Stamp Act of 1765.
    • A direct result of the publishing of the Virginia Resolves was a growing public anger over the Stamp Act.
    • Rothermel's "Patrick Henry Before the Virginia House of Burgesses", a painting of Patrick Henry's "If this be treason, make the most of it!
    • " speech against the Stamp Act of 1765.

  • Jamestown, Virginia

    • Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia established by the Virginia Company of London in 1607.
    • This became known as the House of Burgesses.
    • 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.
    • The House of Burgesses instituted individual land ownership and divided the colony into four large boroughs.
    • Smith's map of Virginia from The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles, 1624

  • The Anglican Class

    • The Church of England controlled Virginian society and government during the colonial era.
    • The Church of England was legally established; the bishop of London made it a favorite missionary target and sent in 22 clergyman by 1624.
    • In practice, establishment meant that local taxes were funneled through the local parish to handle the needs of local government, such as roads and poor relief, in addition to the salary of the minister.
    • When the elected assembly, the House of Burgesses, was established in 1619, it enacted religious laws that made Virginia a bastion of Anglicanism.
    • It passed a law in 1632 requiring uniformity among the Anglican congregations of the colony.

  • Virginia

    • Surviving members of many tribes assimilated into the general population of the colony.
    • This became known as the House of Burgesses.
    • 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.
    • The House of Burgesses instituted individual land ownership and divided the colony into four large boroughs.
    • When the elected assembly, the House of Burgesses, was established in 1619, it enacted religious laws that made Virginia a bastion of Anglicanism.

  • Bacon's Rebellion

    • When they returned to the colonial capital at Jamestown, they found that the House of Burgesses had passed a number of reforms that limited the powers of the governor and expanded suffrage among freemen.
    • Governor Berkeley still refused to act against Native Americans, however, and Bacon and his army issued the "Declaration of the People of Virginia," which accused Berkeley's administration of levying unfair taxes, appointing friends to high places, and failing to protect frontier settlements from Native American attacks.
    • John Ingram took over leadership of the rebellion, but many followers drifted away.
    • His forces defeated the small pockets of insurgents spread across the Tidewater.
    • Portrait of Nathaniel Bacon, Engraving by T.

  • The Rise of the Assemblies

    • Each colony had a system of governance including a governor, a council of officials appointed by the governor, and an elected assembly.
    • Charter governments were political corporations created by letters patent which gave the grantees control of the land and the powers of legislative government.
    • Despite Benjamin Franklin's efforts at the Albany Congress to unite the thirteen colonies under a single system of colonial governance, the British North American colonies remained independent of each other until the eve of the American Revolution.
    • Courts enforced the common law of England.
    • The Assemblies had a variety of titles, such as House of Delegates, House of Burgesses, or Assembly of Freemen.

  • Settling the Colonial South and the Chesapeake

    • The first democratically elected government was the Virginia House of Burgesses, which was first convened in 1619.
    • Both the southern colonies and those in the Chesapeake had similar forms of government: a governor and a council appointed by the crown and an assembly or house of representatives that was elected by the people.
    • The council generally consisted of 12 upper class residents of their colony.
    • As the rich plantation owners who wanted to avoid conflict generally ran the government, the poor free men rebelled by holding the House of Burgesses hostage.
    • Probably the most notable of these is his inclusion of Apalache Lacus.

  • Economic Retaliation and Reaction to the Townshend Acts

    • When the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a resolution stating that Parliament had no right to tax Virginians without their consent, Governor Lord Botetourt dissolved the assembly.
    • The Massachusetts House of Representatives began their own campaign against the Townshend Acts by first sending a petition to King George asking for the repeal of the Revenue Act, and then sending a letter to the other colonial assemblies, asking them to join the resistance movement.
    • In Great Britain, Lord Hillsborough, who had recently been appointed to the newly created office of Colonial Secretary, was alarmed by the actions of the Massachusetts House.
    • He also sent a letter to Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard, instructing him to have the Massachusetts House rescind the Circular Letter.
    • By a vote of 92 - 17, the House refused to comply, and Bernard promptly dissolved the legislature.