ENGLISH COLONIZATION

I. Early English Colonial Experience
A. English Approach to Colonization

  1. 16th-century British society was based upon Protestant institutions.
  2. Its government was a constitutional monarchy with a Parliament with increasing power
  3. The new world climate was not as much of a factor for Great Britain as for Spain.
  4. The area settled by Britain faced smaller nomadic tribes over a smaller land area.

II. Establishment of Virginia
A. Financing for Colonial Development

  1. Four types of exploration and colonization financing methods were formed in the 1500s
    a. Trading Company or Joint Stock Company Colony - Hoping to find something of value to send back to the mother company, using individual investors.
    (1) With the king's permission, a company was formedwhich often had exclusive rights of trade in a particular area or over a particular product.
    (2) These company charters enabled the owners to sell stock or shares to private investors, who were hoping for dividends.
    b. Covenant or Self-governing Colony - colonies created and governed by the settlers (as at Plymouth, Rhode Island and Connecticutt).
    c. Proprietary Colony - One individual or group was given by the crown the right to govern or to settle a specified company (as in Maryland). The government formed could be any type except that colonists had to be guaranteed basic English rights.
    d. Royal Colony - remained under Crown control. For various reasons most English colonies lost their separate status and reverted to royal colonies by 1776.
  2. As a result of Weymouth's explorations, two interrelated groups of merchants from London and Plymouth petitioned the crown in 1605 for a patent (granted in Apr 1606) to colonize for profit, rather than prey on Spanish settlements and shipping.
    a. Two Virginia Companies were authorized:
    (1) London or South Virginia Company was to settle the region between 34 degrees North and 41 degrees North (present-day New York city).
    (2) Plymouth or North Virginia Company was to settle the region between 38 degrees North (present-day Washington D.C.) and 45 degrees North.
    b. Because neither was to settle within 100 miles of the other, a neutral zone occurred.
    c. A company received all lands 50 miles north and south of the first settlement and 100 miles inland.

III. Establishment of Maryland
A. Background -- Ten years after Virginia became a Royal Colony

  1. A second plantation colony (England's fourth colony of the original thirteen) was established near VA by George Calvert (1580-1632) who resigned as James I's Secretary of State (1625) after converting to Catholicism, although he was declared First Lord Baltimore by James I.
    a. As a member of the Virginia Company (1609-20) and the Council for New England (1622), Calvert purchased the southeastern peninsula of Newfoundland and created the colony of Avalon, which did not prosper.
    b. Although he settled in Virginia in Oct 1629, he was forced to leave when he refused to take the necessary Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the Monarch.
    c. Calvert applied for a proprietary charter from Charles I for territory north of the Potomac River, but he died in 1632 before the request was finalized, which then passed to his son, Cecilius , 2d Lord Baltimore (1605-75).
    d. He established the first proprietory colony, Maryland, named after Queen Henrietta Maria
    e. The charter stipulated:
    (1) Colonists must be guaranteed basic English rights.
    (2) Calvert could make laws with the consent of free male property owners.
    (3) The first legislative assembly met in 1635, and split into two houses in 1650.
    (4) Because the charter did not forbid the establishment of churches other than Protestant, Lord Baltimore made Maryland a haven for English Catholics.
    (5) The proprietor could grant manorial estates which he did to many Catholic relatives and friends but settlers could not be attracted without the promise of land of their own.
    (6) Few Catholics would migrate, and Protestant settlers soon outnumbered Catholics, who were now threatened with restrictions in their own colony.

IV. Founding of Plymouth Bay
A. Early Activities of the Plymouth Company

  1. The first company expedition (1606) was captured by the Spanish in the West Indies.
  2. Sir John Popham led a second expedition, exploring the coast of Maine to the South.
  3. Sir Ferdinando Gorges in 1607 sent the Gift of God under George Popham and the Mary and John under Raleigh Gilbert who landed in Maine, where a fort was erected.
  4. The initial colony failed because of idleness and factionalism.
  5. Trading and fishing activities were sent to the Maine coast by Sir John Popham (son) as well as the Dutch, French and Spaniards.
  6. John Smith explored the New England coast (1614) for the company, finding many possible settlement areas on which he published A Description of New England , which gave the region its name.
  7. Richard Vines, after a winter at the mouth of the Saco, reported on the rich cod fishing which revived the interests of the Plymouth Company.
  8. Although the Plymouth company received a charter from James I in 1620, a new charter granted to the Council for New England all land between 40 and 48 degrees North and from "sea to sea."

V. Establishment of Massachusetts Bay Colony
A. Background of the Massachusetts Colony

  1. By 1600 Puritans held considerable influence in the Church of England and when the economy grew worse, many Puritans became interested in colonizing New England.
    a. Puritans wanted to eliminate the office of bishop but James I bitterly opposed their efforts, believing the monarch's power to name bishops greatly strengthened his power because bishops comprised about a quarter of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Parliament which at that time had strong voice in enacting laws.
    (1) Bishops also controlled the clergy and could silence ministers whose sermons were critical of government policies.
    (2) James I consequently made it clear that he saw Puritan attacks on bishops as a direct threat to himself when he snapped "No bishop, no king."
    b. After Charles I came to the throne in 1625, Anglican authorities undertook a systematic campaign to eliminate Puritan influence in the church.
    (1) Bishops insisted that services be conducted according to the Book of Common Prayer which prescribed rituals similar to Catholic practices
    (a) They dismissed Puritan ministers who refused to perform High Church rites
    (b) Church courts also judged cases involving religious laws and harassed Puritan laity with fines or excommunication .
    (c) Also a deep recession plagued England during the Thirty Years War that prevented Germany from buying English cloth after 1618.
    (2) This further encouraged Puritans to look for opportunities away from England's constricting environment.
  2. An earlier colony of the Dorchester Company planted a settlement near present-day Gloucester in 1624-26 which failed, although almost forty settlers remained at a trading post near present-day Salem.
    3. New England Company was established 19 Mar 1628 by the Rev. John White , a member of the Dorchester Company
    a. The company received a patent to land extending three miles north of the Merrimack river to three miles south to the Charles river.
    b. Its 90 members, nearly all Puritan, included six from the old Dorchester group.
  3. John Endecott (1589-1655) arrived with colonists in Sept 1628, serving as the colony's first governor until 1630.
    5. Massachusetts Bay Company (Mar 1629) with a royal charter replaced it.
    a. The charter, however, failed to specify where its annual meeting would be held.
    b. The government was transfered to New England as a result of this oversight.
    c. The company was transformed into a self-governing commonwealth.
    d. The Salem church was established along separatist lines and two freemen were expelled when they insisted on conforming to the Anglican ritual.
  4. Cambridge Agreement 1629, prepared by 12 members of the Massachusetts Bay Company who ratified it in Aug, transfered the charter and the government of the company to the new world.
  5. The Puritan position decreased after William Laud became Bishop of London in 1628 and Charles I dissolved Parliament in Mar 1629.
    8. Not until 1630 however did a large scale migration begin, building communities based on religious ideals, believing they could found America's first Utopian society.

VI. Offshoots from Massachusetts 1631-60
A. Connecticut

  1. Edward Winslow explored the Connecticut Valley (Fall 1632) into Dutch territory (New Amsterdam) and built a fort and trading post near present-day Hartford (1633).
  2. John Oldham of the Bay Colony led a party to winter at present-day Wethersfield in 1634-35 while LT. William Holmes , commissioned by Winthrop, established a trading post above Hartford at Windsor on land claimed by Plymouth.
  3. Several colonists from the Massachusetts seacoast towns moved to Windsor in the spring of 1635 and again in Oct.
  4. In July 1635, a group headed by Lord Saye and Sele, claimed rights to the region on the basis of a patent from the Council for New England, and authorized John Winthrop the Younger (1606-76) to take control at the mouth of the Connecticut River.
    a. Winthrop's authority was accepted by the settlers before Mar 1636.
    b. Massachusetts General Court's plan of government gave authority to the inhabitants.
  5. Rev. Thomas Hooker and several from Newton reached Hartford (May 1636).
    a. His democratic views were expressed in a sermon in May 1638 in which he declared that authority rested upon the free consent of the "people."
    b. His views were shared by John Haynes and Roger Ludlow who founded Fairfield and Stratford in 1638.
  6. The frame of government known as the Fundamental Orders was adopted by Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield (Jan 1639).
    a. Springfield under William Pynchon refused to join and after 1649 regularly sent deputies to the Massachusetts General Court.
    b. Freemen, or "admitted inhabitants" (Trinitarian male householders) who were approved by the General Court or by one or more of the magistrates, selected the magistrates and the Governor from an approved Congregation.
    c. Voting in town affairs was open to "admitted inhabitants" who after 1657 were in possession of an estate valued at thirty pounds.
  7. The franchise was as restrictive as the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was composed of 15 towns by 1662 before New Haven was absorbed into it.

VII. Beginnings of Unification
A. Pequot War (1636-37)

  1. Puritan Expansion
    a. As Native Americans continued to die drastically from disease Puritans sought to expand their settlements.
    b. As the Puritans moved further inland they met Indian resistance beginning in 1633 with the Pequot tribe who controlled the trade in furs and wampum with New Netherlands.
  2. A punitive expedition in Aug 1636, led by John Endecott of Massachusetts, against the Pequots was in reprisal for the murder of a New England trader John Oldham.
  3. The Pequots in turn made reprisal raids in the Spring.
    4. CPT John Mason of Connecticut destroyed the main Pequot village in May.
  4. Gov. William Bradford saw it as a good thing as the English praised God for helping to destroy these Indians.
  5. A fleeing remnant was slaughtered in July near New Haven by a combined force from Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
  6. Surviving Pequots were taken as slaves and the settlement of Connecticut proceeded unimpeded

VIII. English Colonies From the Restoration To the Glorious Revolution 1660-89
A. Background

  1. After Oliver Cromwell died in 1660, the government temporarily was headed by his son, Richard, but he was no Oliver, and a move was made to restore the monarchy to England.
  2. Charles II, son of the beheaded Charles I, was crowned king.
  3. The restoration of the monarchy to England placed the New England colonies in peril.
    a. When the Puritans ruled England, they were sympathetic to the cause of the Bay commonwealth and to the independence of New Haven as a colony.
    b. Gradually, however, as judges and governors were replaced by monarchists and not Puritans, the colonies were converted into Royal colonies.

IX. Settlement of the Middle Colonies
A. New Netherland based on Dutch claims in the New World through the exploration of Henry Hudson.

  1. Adriaen Block (d. 1624) further explored in the early seventeenth century, and noted on maps for the first time that Manhattan and Long Island were separate islands.
  2. Dutch West India Company, chartered by the States General, had a trading monoploy and the right to colonize in the New World and along the west African coast below the Tropic of Cancer.
  3. A Provincial Order (Mar 1628) was issued to govern life aboard ship.
  4. Colonists were divided into free colonists (who could own their own homesteads and were given transportation, seeds, cattle and other necessities for 2 years) and indentured husbandmen (who worked for company officials or on company farms for a specified time).
  5. Trading with outsiders was banned, being confined to the Company.
  6. The first permanent settlement was established in 1624 under the leadership of CPT Cornelis Jacobsen May near NY Bay.
  7. In 1626 Peter Minuit , director of the colonies, purchased Manhattan from native Indian chiefs for 60 guilders ($24.00) worth of goods.
  8. He erected 30 houses on the island and changed its name to New Amsterdam .
  9. Patroonships were established by the States General which confirmed the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions .
    a. The company granted feudal rights to estates along the river to those transporting 50 settlers.
    b. By 1630, 5 patroonships were granted, but only one succeeded.
  10. Minuit was replaced by Wouter Van Twiller (1633-38) because he was too liberal in granting trading privileges to patroons.
  11. Willem Kiefft (1597-1647) replaced him after he was charged with illegal trading activities and with hostility toward the Dutch Reformed Church.

X. Establishment of the Lower Thirteen Original Colonies
A. Development of Spanish Florida

  1. First Spanish Missionary Efforts 1577-1600
    a. Franciscan activity under Fray Alonso de Reynoso was unsuccessful.
    b. Fray Juan de Silva (1595) intensely established several mission provinces.
    c. Although meeting with some Indian hostility, hundreds of Indians were converted and several chapels were erected north of St Augustine.
    d. Indian attacks (1597-1600) resulted in the abandonment of all missions north of St. Augustine except for Santa Elena.
    e. Retaliatory strikes against Indian villages resulted in a return to peace by 1600 and the establishment of numerous missions throughout Florida.
  2. Second Line of Advance
    a. Franciscans pushed northward establishing many missions (1601-80).
    b. Activity also pushed westward across the neck of the Florida peninsula
    c. Despite Indian uprisings through 1647, 38 missions existed with 26,000 Indians at least partly converted by 1655.