1600-1754: Government and Politics: Chronology

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1600-1754: Government and Politics: Chronology

IMPORTANT EVENTS OF 1600-1754

1607

Three vessels carrying 105 London Company passengers arrive in Virginia.

1608

Capt. John Smith is elected president of the Jamestown Council.

1609

Capt. John Smith reluctantly relinquishes authority with the anticipated arrival of Gov. Thomas Lord De La Warr.
The Starving Time, a one-year period of severe malnutrition, disease, and disorder begins in the Jamestown settlement.

1611

Virginia governor Thomas Gates implements a series of laws called Dale’s Code to maintain order in Jamestown.

1614

The first tobacco shipment is sent to England.

1619

Martial law in Virginia is replaced by a general assembly of twenty-two burgesses, the first representative assembly in America.

1620

Off of present-day Cape Cod, Massachusetts, forty-one male passengers on the Mayflower sign the Mayflower Compact, establishing a preliminary “civil body politic” and the authority to legislate laws as necessary.

1621

William Bradford becomes governor of Plymouth and serves at that post for thirty years.

1624

After the revocation of the London Company charter in May, Virginia becomes a royal colony.
The first permanent settlers to come through the Dutch West India Company (approximately thirty families) arrive in the present-day New York Bay area.

1625

Peter Minuit purchases land from Indians (Manhattan Island) and names it New Amsterdam.

1629

The Massachusetts Bay Company is formed by English Puritans allowing the Company to have governmental autonomy once on the American mainland.

1630

John Winthrop is elected first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1631

One hundred and thirty male church members combine to make up the freemanship of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1632

Maryland is established as the first proprietary colony. George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, sought the initial charter from Charles I, and upon his death, his son Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, became the first proprietor of the colony.

1635

The General Court of Massachusetts Bay banishes Roger Williams after he questions the government’s authority in matters of religious conscience.

1636

Plymouth colony inhabitants adopt the Great Fundamentals allowing for the establishment of a general court made up of the governor and two representatives from each town.
Roger Williams founds Providence, Rhode Island, on Narragansett Bay.

1637

In retaliation for the killing of the trader John Oldham the previous year, militiamen under Capt. John Mason destroy a large portion of the Pequot Indians in the New Haven area.

1638

Anne Hutchinson is tried and banished from Massachusetts Bay for the promulgation of Antinomianism, which is seen by authorities as a threat to church dominance both politically and religiously.
Backed by Dutch and Swedish investors, settlers from Sweden and the Netherlands disembark at present-day Wilmington, Delaware.

1639

The Fundamental Orders are adopted by settlers of New Haven, Connecticut.

1641

The Massachusetts Bay General Court adopts the Body of Liberties, a penal code closely aligned with Old Testament Law.

1642

Sir William Berkeley begins his first term as Virginia’s royal governor.

1643

Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth form a confederation called the United Colonies of New England.
The colony of New Haven formally bases its government structure on the Mosaic Decalogue (Ten Commandments).

1644

Massachusetts Bay adopts a bicameral legislature.
Roger Williams receives an official charter granting inhabitants of the four primary towns of Rhode Island (Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, and Warwick) the right to establish a constitution through a general assembly.

1647

Rhode Island adopts its first constitution which declares separation of church and state and freedom of religious expression.
Peter Stuyvesant becomes director general of New Netherland.

1649

After Charles I is beheaded, Virginia proclaims its loyalty to the Stuarts and becomes a safe haven for royal supporters.
The Act of Toleration passed in Maryland affirms freedom of religion for all Christians in that colony.

l652

Dutch official Peter Stuyvesant authorizes an independent government for the growing municipality of New Amsterdam.
The General Court of Massachusetts Bay officially pronounces the territory of Maine as within the boundaries of the Bay colony.
After authorizing a blockade on Virginia shipping, the English Commonwealth Parliament forces a new election for governorship, replacing Sir William Berkeley with a parliamentary appointee.

1653

The earliest English settlers in the Carolinas come by way of Virginia. The settlement of Albemarle is established just north of Albemarle Sound; the colony is called North Carolina after 1691.

1655

Peter Stuyvesant brings an end to Swedish rule in America by defeating Johan Classon Rising, New Sweden’s governor, at Fort Casimir.

1659

With the fall of Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate, the Virginia burgesses assume full control of the colony.

1660

After the Restoration of the Stuarts, Charles II re-commissions Sir William Berkeley as Virginia’s royal governor.
Parliament passes the first of the Navigation Acts.
The Lords of Trade (or Committee for Trade and Plantations) is commissioned to oversee commerce in the American colonies; it operates under the authority of the Privy Council.

1662

Connecticut obtains a royal charter.

1663

Charles II grants the lands consisting of South and North Carolina to eight proprietors.

1664

Rhode Island receives a royal charter which honors the colony’s preexistent declaration of religious liberty.
English forces take New Netherland and rename it New York.
John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret receive a grant from the duke of York for land within present-day New Jersey.

1665

New Haven becomes part of the royal colony of Connecticut.
Philip Carteret, a relative of Sir George Carteret, is appointed the first governor of New Jersey.
New York adopts the Duke’s Laws which mark the transition from a Dutch to an English civil and legal code.
Charles II sends four commissioners to New England to ensure that each of the regional colonies (Plymouth, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts) comply with royal prerogatives, one of which demands greater latitude for church membership. The royal commissioners also institute a separate government in Maine.
Carolina proprietors adopt the Concessions and Agreements which allow for the formation of a representative assembly of freeholders, a system of land ownership, and freedom of conscience.

1668

New Jersey convenes its first General Assembly.

1669

Maine becomes part of Massachusetts.
As a supplement to the Concessions and Agreements, Carolina proprietors adopt John Locke’s Fundamental Constitutions.

1670

An English settlement is established on the Ashley River at Albemarle Point called Charles Town. The settlement later relocates to the fork of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, site of present-day Charleston, South Carolina.

1671

The first assembly for the new settlement at Charles Town is established.

1674

The Treaty of Westminster provides for the official surrender of Dutch forces which had retaken control of New York earlier in the year.

1675

King Philip’s War begins and pits the New England Confederation against Indian tribes led by Chief Philip of the Wampanoags. The two-year conflict results in great loss and destruction for both sides. Twelve New England towns are leveled, and for every sixteen white men of fighting age, one loses his life.

1676

Bacon’s Rebellion occurs in Virginia.
As a result of proprietary transitions first initiated by Lord Berkeley’s sale of his interests, New Jersey divides into two colonies, East and West Jersey.

1677

Since the Lords of Trade do not recognize Massachusetts’ claim on the territory of Maine, Massachusetts Bay authorities buy out the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges who hold the land title. From this point until 1820 Maine remains part of Massachusetts.
The proprietors of West Jersey institute the Laws, Concessions, and Agreements which stress the rights of religious liberty, trial by jury, and the requirement of public consent prior to taxation.
In Charles Town an antiproprietary government, with John Culpeper as a principal leader, is formed to counter the perceived misappropriation of authority by the proprietary government.

1680

The colony of New Hampshire is separated, by royal commission, from Massachusetts.

1681

William Penn receives proprietary rights from Charles II for the land now known as Pennsylvania. The formation of this colony is what Penn calls a “holy experiment” due to the emphasis placed on the rights of Christian dissent.

1682

William Penn establishes his Frame of Government which allows for the creation of an assembly, council, and governor’s office in Pennsylvania.

1683

Under the direction of the duke of York, the Charter of Liberties (drawn up by Mathias Nichols) provides for the establishment of a general assembly with the powers of taxation and independent legislation.

1684

The Royal Court of Chancery decrees the Massachusetts Bay charter null and void.

1685

Due to Charles Town’s rejection of the Fundamental Constitutions, the Carolina proprietors disallow the settlement’s local assembly.
The Dominion of New England is formed, and the next year Sir Edmund Andros is appointed governor.

1689

With the absence of Gov. Sir Edmund Andros and Lt. Gov. Francis Nicholson, Jacob Leisler, German trader and fervent Calvinist, assumes political and military control of New York.

1691

Newly arrived Gov. Henry Sloughter defeats Jacob Leisler’s forces in New York.

1696

William III commissions the Board of Trade to oversee commercial (trade and fishing) and political (power of appointments and legislative review) concerns in the American colonies.

1697

The Board of Trade establishes vice admiralty courts which have jurisdiction over colonial maritime cases.

1701

Delaware becomes a separate government from Pennsylvania and convenes its first autonomous assembly three years later. Even so, a single governor administers both provinces until the American Revolution.
The Charter of Liberties, the constitution of Pennsylvania until the American Revolution, establishes the only sustained unicameral (onehouse) legislature in the colonies.

1702

Both East and West Jersey become royal colonies.

1704

The secretary of state for the Southern Department gains the prerogative to appoint royal governors in the colonies; this power had been previously held by the Board of Trade.

1712

North Carolina appoints its first separate governor, Edward Hyde.

1721

South Carolina becomes a royal colony with the appointment of Francis Nicholson as governor.

1729

North Carolina becomes a royal colony.

1732

Twenty trustees receive a royal charter for land south of the Savannah River, previously part of South Carolina; the new colony becomes known as Georgia.