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The Province of Massachusetts Bay, British Colonial America (North America)
The Province of Massachusetts Bay (originally named "The Charter of William and Mary") was a British settlement in North America that existed from 1691–1780; it was formed from the merging of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (established by King Charles I in 1628) and the Plymouth Colony (formed in 1620) as a charter, which expanded the original colony that was a part of The Plymouth Colony (West of the Cape Cod Bay) that started in 1620 The Province of Maine, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were rechartered on October 7, 1691 by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The charter took effect on May 14, 1692 It was the largest English settlement in New England, influential in the colonization of the region and in the development of what would become the United States; the colony's borders with neighboring provinces were adjusted during the provincial period and gave the Crown the power to appoint the Governor, rather than electing them The name Massachusetts is from the Massachusett Indians, an Algonquian tribe. It has been translated as "at the great hill", "at the place of large hills", or "at the range of hills", with reference to the Blue Hills and to Great Blue Hill in particular It became one of the thirteen original states of the United States in 1776, evolving to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts More details -------------- Colonial settlement of the shores of Massachusetts Bay began in 1620 with the founding of the Plymouth Colony on the western coast of the Cape Cod Bay. Other attempts at colonization took place throughout the 1620s, but expansion of English settlements only began on a large scale with the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628 and the arrival of the first large group of Puritan settlers in 1630 The territory (nominally administered by the colony) covered much of central New England, including portions of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. Territory claimed (but never administered by the colonial government) extended as far west as the Pacific Ocean. The Dutch colony of New Netherland disputed many of these claims, arguing that they held rights to land beyond Rhode Island up to the western side of Cape Cod Bay, under the jurisdiction of the Plymouth Colony at the time The colony was founded by the owners of the Massachusetts Bay Company, which included investors in the failed Dorchester Company which had established a short-lived settlement on Cape Ann in 1623. The colony became economically successful, with about 20,000 people migrating to New England in the 1630s and engaging in trade with England and the West Indies. A shortage of hard currency prompted it to establish a mint in 1652 and political differences with England after the English Restoration led to the revocation of the colonial charter in 1684 The colonists initially had good relationships with the local Indian populations, but frictions developed which ultimately led to the Pequot War (1636–38) and then to King Philip's War (1675–78), which was very costly to the colonists of New England, putting a halt to expansion for several years. Most of the Indians in southern New England made peace treaties with the colonists, apart from the Pequot tribe, whose survivors were largely absorbed into the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes following the Pequot War Over the first ten years from its founding, a major migration of Puritans moved to the area, leading to the founding of a number of new colonies in New England. By the 1680s, the number of New England colonies had stabilized at five; the Connecticut Colony, the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and the Province of New Hampshire all bordered the area surrounding Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth. Massachusetts Bay, however, was the most populous and economically successful, hosting a sizable merchant fleet and engaging in trade with England and the West Indies Governance of the colony was dominated by a small group, strongly influenced by the Puritan religious leaders. Its governors were elected, and the electorate was limited to freemen who had been examined for their religious views and formally admitted to the local church. As a consequence, the colonial leadership exhibited intolerance to other religious views, including Anglican, Quaker, and Baptist theologies Massachusetts and Plymouth were both somewhat politically independent from England in their early days, but this situation changed after the restoration of Charles II to the English throne in 1660. Charles sought closer oversight of the colonies, and he tried to introduce and enforce economic control over their activities. The Navigation Acts passed in the 1660s were widely disliked in Massachusetts, where merchants often found themselves trapped and at odds with the rules. However, many colonial governments did not enforce the acts themselves, particularly Massachusetts, and tensions grew when Charles revoked the first Massachusetts Charter in 1684. Sir William Phips arrived in 1692 bearing the charter and formally took charge of the new province In 1686, Charles II's successor, King James II established "The Dominion of New England" to bring all of the New England colonies (the British territories from Delaware Bay to Penobscot Bay) under firmer crown control, a single political unit. The dominion governor, Sir Edmund Andros was highly unpopular in the colonies, but he was especially hated in Massachusetts where he angered virtually everyone by rigidly enforcing the Navigation Acts, vacating land titles, appropriating a Puritan meeting house as a site to host services for the Church of England, and restricting town meetings, among other sundry complaints The dominion collapsed after 2 years with the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 and deposed James; whereupon the Massachusetts political leaders rose up against Andros, arresting him and other English authorities in April 1689. The Massachusetts Bay Colony reverted to rule under the revoked charter until 1691, when a new charter was issued for the Province of Massachusetts Bay that combined the Massachusetts Bay territories with those of the Plymouth Colony and proprietary holdings on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard The Plymouth colony never had a royal charter, so its governance had always been on a somewhat precarious footing. The Massachusetts colonial government was re-established but it no longer had a valid charter, and some opponents of the old Puritan rule refused to pay taxes and engaged in other forms of protest Provincial agents traveled to London where Increase Mather was representing the old colony leaders, and he petitioned new rulers William III and Mary II to restore the old colonial charter. King William refused, however, when he learned that this might result in a return to the religious rule. Instead, the Lords of Trade combined the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay into the Province of Massachusetts Bay. They issued a charter for the Province on October 7, 1691, and appointed Sir William Phips as its governor [ source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Colony ]
