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| 3. New England |
| a. Massachusetts |
| 1606 |
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| Granting of the charter to the Plymouth Company. In this year two unsuccessful attempts were made to found colonies. In 1607 settlers were landed at the mouth of the Kennebec River, but the enterprise was abandoned the next spring. | 1 |
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| 1614 |
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| Captain John Smith, of the Virginia settlement, explored the coast of New England and mapped it. He was made Admiral of New England by the Plymouth Company (1615) and made an abortive effort to start a colony. | 2 |
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| 1620, Nov. 13 |
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| The Council for New England. The Plymouth Company having failed to found a colony, Gorges and others secured the incorporation of the council, which was given jurisdiction between 40° and 48° north latitude. | 3 |
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| 1620, Nov |
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| ARRIVAL OF THE PILGRIMS at Cape Cod. The Pilgrims were a group of separatists who had migrated from Scrooby to Amsterdam and thence to Leyden in Holland. In 1617 they decided to seek a new home in order to preserve their English identity. They obtained a patent from the London Company and John Carver was made their governor. They left England in the Mayflower and reached Cape Cod, which they found to be outside the jurisdiction of the London Company. They therefore drew up the Mayflower Compact, by which they formed themselves into a body politic and agreed to enact laws for the welfare of the colony. The basis of government, then, was the will of the colonists rather than that of the crown. Plymouth was selected as the site of the settlement. | 4 |
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| 1621 |
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| William Bradford became governor on the death of Carver. | 5 |
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| 1623 |
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| Settlements at Portsmouth and Dover (New Hampshire) and at Casco Bay and Saco Bay (Maine) were made under the auspices of the Council for New England. A group of Dorchester merchants settled on Cape Ann (1624). | 6 |
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| 1628, Sept |
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| John Endicott and some 50 colonists arrived at Salem, acting under a patent obtained by Rev. John White of Dorchester from the Council for New England. | 7 |
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| 1629, March |
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| ROYAL CHARTER issued confirming the grant to Endicott and his associates. The new corporation was known as the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England. | 8 |
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| June 27 |
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| Five ships, with some 400 settlers, arrived at Salem. John Winthrop and other prominent men meeting at Cambridge (England) agreed to emigrate to Massachusetts Bay, provided the charter and government might be legally transferred to America. The company decided to make the transfer and Winthrop was named governor. | 9 |
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| 1630 |
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| Seventeen ships brought about 1,000 persons to the colony. By the end of the year, settlements had been made at Dorchester, Boston, Watertown, Roxbury, Mystic, and Lynn. The first general court of the colony was held at Boston (Oct. 19). From then on no person was to be admitted as a freeman of the corporation unless a member of some church within the colony. In 1634 a representative system was introduced into the general court, because the growth of the colony prevented attendance of all freemen. | 10 |
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