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The Massachusetts Bay Colony (sometimes called by the name Massachusetts Bay Company, for the institution that founded it) was the direct predecessor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and then the state of Massachusetts.The colony was established under a charter issued to the Massachusetts Bay Company. There were actually two companies that preceded the Massachusetts Bay Company. The Dorchester Company planted a fishing colony on Cape Ann (at modern Gloucester) in 1624, but this did not succeed. Most colonists returned to England, but a few under Roger Conant moved to Salem where they set up a trading post. They were followed by the New England Company which received a land patent extending from the Merrimack River to the Charles River plus three miles on either side. John Endicott led a group of Puritan settlers to Salem, and served as governor from their arrival on September 6, 1628. The Massachusetts Bay Company replaced both of these when the Puritans were able to convert the patents into a royal charter on March 4, 1629.
1 A Puritan Colony
The first 400 settlers under this new charter departed in April 1629. Most, but not all of the members of the Company were Puritans, and events during the spring and summer of 1629 convinced them they could only remain non conformists in the Church of England by getting out of England. Charles ICharles I ( 19 November 1600 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625, until his death. He famously engaged in a struggle for power with Parliament; he was an advocate of the divine right of kings, but his foes in Parl had dissolved the parliament, and William LaudWilliam Laud ( October 7 1573 January 10, 1645) was Archbishop of Canterbury and a fervent supporter of Charles I of England whom he encouraged to believe in the Divine Right of Kings. Laud was born in Reading, England, of comparatively low origins (a fac, the Bishop of LondonThe current Bishop of London is Richard John Carew Chartres, who is the 132nd Bishop, and was installed on January 26, 1996. The Diocese of London covers 177 square miles (458 kmē), and 17 London boroughs. It is third in importance in the Church of Englan, renewed the pressure on the separatist Puritans to conform with church practices. His harassment was a direct cause of the progressively larger emigration over the next few years.
Perhaps by oversight, the company's charter made no mention of the location of its headquarters. On August 29, the shareholders who wished to move to America reached an agreement ( The Cambridge Agreement ) and bought out those who wished to remain in England. So when John WinthropJohn Winthrop was the name of several prominent figures in colonial New England. See John Winthrop (disambiguation John Winthrop ( 12 January 1587/8 26 March 1649) was elected governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 and on 8 April 1630 he led a large set out with the next wave of 700 settlers in March of 1630 (The Winthrop FleetThe Winthrop Fleet of 1630 was a fleet of eleven ships that carried 700 immigrants from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in April to July 1630. The group was led by Governor John Winthrop. It was and is the largest fleet ever assembled to carry Eng of 1630)
they carried their Charter with them, and Winthrop replaced Endicott as governor of the Colony.
When they settled at BostonAlternate meanings: Boston (disambiguation Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. Boston is the capital and largest city in Massachusetts in the United States. It is the unofficial capital of the region k, the leadership and headquarters of the Colony and the Company were united in America. The idea that this colony was a community with a special covenant with God was laid out in Winthrop's sermon, "A City upon a HillCity upon a Hill is the phrase often used to refer to John Winthrop's famous sermon, "A Modell of Christian Charity," based on Matthew 5:14 ("You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. in which he urged that the Puritan colonists." The idea that theirs was a holy community shaped life in the colony enormously, making it imperative that colonists legislate morality, enforcing marriage, church attendance, and education in the Word of God as well as relentlessly seeking out and punishing sin and sinners.
The colony celebrated its first Thanksgiving Day on July 8, 1630.
Massachusetts Bay continued its rapid growth, in spite of serious difficulties. During the first winter (1630-1631), over 200 died. When the next ships came, more chose to return to England. This was, in fact, the only tragic winter faced by the young colony. Since the pressures on the Puritan non-conformists at home continued, so did increasing and rapid immigration, and by the end of 1631 the colony numbered over 2,000. Over the next several years, as Archbishop Laud continued to add rigor to the Church hierarchy, the growth continued. Ministers rejected in England also made the trip with their flocks, so John Cotton, Roger Williams, Thomas Hooker, and others became leaders of Puritan congregations in Massachusetts.
