28 Facts About Massachusetts colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony, more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

The Massachusetts colony began in 1628 and was the company's second attempt at colonization.

Massachusetts colony elected Matthew Cradock as its first governor and immediately began organizing provisions and recruiting settlers.

Massachusetts colony authorities were sympathetic to the Parliamentary cause and had generally positive relationships with the governments of the English Commonwealth and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell.

The Massachusetts colony's economy began to diversify in the 1640s, as the fur trading, lumber, and fishing industries found markets in Europe and the West Indies, and the Massachusetts colony's shipbuilding industry developed.

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The Massachusetts colony frontier was particularly hard hit: several communities in the Connecticut and Swift River valleys were abandoned.

England had difficulty enforcing its laws and regulations in the Massachusetts Bay colony, as it was a joint-stock colony which was unlike the royal colonies and proprietary colonies that the English crown administered.

Massachusetts colony Bay was largely self-governing with its own house of deputies, governor, and other self-appointed officers.

The Massachusetts colony did not keep its headquarters and oversight in London but moved them to the Massachusetts colony.

The Commissioners asked that the Massachusetts colony pay its obligated 20 percent of all gold and silver found in New England, but the colonists responded that they were "not obligated to the king but by civility".

Massachusetts Bay extended the right to vote only to Puritans, but the population of the colony was increasing and the non-Puritan population was growing along with it; thus, tensions and conflicts were growing concerning the future direction of the colony.

Charges of insubordination against the colony included denying the crown's authority to legislate in New England, asserting that Massachusetts Bay was governing in the Province of New Hampshire and Maine, and denying freedom of conscience.

Randolph reported to London that the General Court of Massachusetts colony Bay claimed that the King had no right to interfere with their commercial dealings.

Two delegates from Massachusetts Bay were sent to London to meet with the Lords of Trade when the crown threatened the colony with a quo warranto.

The King feared that this would stir problems within the Massachusetts colony and attempted to reassure the colonists that their private interests would not be infringed upon.

The process by which individuals became members of one of the Massachusetts colony's churches involved a detailed questioning by the church elders of their beliefs and religious experiences; as a result, only individuals whose religious views accorded with those of the church leadership were likely to become members and gain the ability to vote in the Massachusetts colony.

Massachusetts colony's was hanged in 1638 for murdering her daughter, as the common law of Massachusetts made no distinction at the time between insanity and criminal behavior.

In 1643, Massachusetts Bay joined Plymouth Colony, Connecticut Colony, and New Haven Colony in the New England Confederation, a loose coalition organized primarily to coordinate military and administrative matters among the Puritan colonies.

Towns were required to maintain their roads, on penalty of fines, and the Massachusetts colony required special town commissions to lay out roads in a more sensible manner in 1639.

The Massachusetts colony set standards governing the use of weights and measures.

Puritan dislike of ostentation led the Massachusetts colony to regulate expenditures on what it perceived as luxury items.

Attempts to ban these items failed, and the Massachusetts colony resorted to laws restricting their display to those who could demonstrate £200 in assets.

The population of Massachusetts colony remained largely English in character until the 1840s.

The Massachusetts colony's claims were large, but the practicalities of the time meant that they never actually controlled any land further west than the Connecticut River valley.

The Massachusetts colony claimed additional lands by conquest and purchase, further extending the territory that it administered.

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In 1678, the Massachusetts colony purchased the claims of the Gorges heirs, gaining control over the territory between the Piscataqua and Kennebec Rivers.

Massachusetts colony administered Block Island and the area around present-day Stonington, Connecticut, as part of these spoils of war, and was one of several claimants to land in what was known as Narragansett Country .

Massachusetts colony lost these territories in the 1660s, when Connecticut and Rhode Island received their royal charters.