The Founding of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies

Plymouth Colony

Though Nordic explorers and fisherman had been sailing the waters off Massachusetts for half a century, it was not until 1620 that Europeans successfully founded the first colony. Puritans unhappy with the state of the Church of England, approached the King for a charter to start a colony in the New World. The King granted the Plymouth Company a charter in 1606, but due to unforeseen circumstances in travel and transportation the company dissolved and was reformed in 1620 and granted a new charter under the Council for New England. The charter granted the Pilgrims the right to form a colony in Virginia. In 1620 the Mayflower, unable to make it to Virginia came ashore at present day Cape Cod and declared the area Plymouth, in reference to the city in England from which they left.





Before embarking for shore the adult men of the Mayflower drew up and signed the Mayflower Compact, which created the first American settlement and established a set of basic laws and principles for their new settlement. These basic principles would serve as a foundation for government in the colony for a decade and would be the used as a template for the laws of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.



During the first winter over half of the colonists died of scurvy and exposure to the harsh New England winter. This did not discourage the colonists who survived the harsh conditions, not one of the survivors returned to England. These hardy colonists had come to the New World under providence from the King and God.


The living conditions did not improve after the first winter. The Pilgrims had to form alliances with the Massasoit Indians, and it was with the Wampanoags that the Pilgrims had "Thanksgiving", which gave rise to the current holiday.

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Granted a charter in 1628 under the New England Company. In 1629 the New England Company obtained a royal charter as the “Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.” Almost immediately the emphasis changed from trade to religion, as the Puritan stockholders conceived of the colony as a religious and political refuge for their sect. Under the leadership of John Winthrop.

In 1630 John Winthrop led the first large Puritan migration from England. "Governor Winthrop was accompanied to Massachusetts by nearly three hundred families, or fifteen hundred souls many of whom were distinguished for their quality, as well as their intelligence and piety." The colonists sailed for New England in 1630 and established a colony deciding to make their chief settlement at the mouth of the Charles River, "a commanding position on Massachusetts Bay." In 1691 a new charter made Massachusetts a royal colony and extended its jurisdiction over Plymouth and Maine.

Hutchinson, T., Hutchinson, J., Mayo, L. S., & Mayo, L. S. (1936). The history of the colony and province of massachusetts-bay. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Langdon, G. D. (1966). Pilgrim colony; a history of new plymouth, 1620-1691. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Morison, S. E., Alfred A. Knopf, I., & Overly, C. H. (1956). The story of the "old colony" of new plymouth, 1620-1692. illustrated ([1 .] ed.). New York: Knopf.

Santella, A., & NetLibrary, I. (2001). The plymouth colony [electronic resource]. Minneapolis, Minn.: Compass Point Books.