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Massachusetts’ Charter Provided for Faith - 1629

A corner of the Massachusetts Bay charter.

Introduction

On this day March 4, 1629, King Charles I of England signed the Massachusetts Bay Charter. The charter did not stipulate that the officers of the Massachusetts Bay Company had to remain in England, and so they moved to Massachusetts and became a self-governing colony in the New World. The charter expressed hope that the colony would serve to instruct the native inhabitants and give them knowledge of God the Savior. The spelling has been modernized.

Quote

“And, we do of our further grace…give and grant to the said governor and company, and their successors, that it shall and may be lawful, to and for the governor or deputy governor, and such of the assistants and freemen of the said company for the time being as shall be assembled in any of their general courts aforesaid, or in any other courts to be specially summoned and assembled for that purpose…to make, ordain, and establish all manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, laws, statutes, and ordinances, directions, and instructions, not contrary to the laws of this our realm of England…and for impositions of lawful fines, mulcts [extractions of money by fines or taxation], imprisonment, or other lawful correction, according to the course of other corporations in this our realm of England, and for the directing, ruling, and disposing of all other matters and things, whereby our said people, inhabitants there, may be so religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed, as their good life and orderly conversation, may win and incite the natives of Country, to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Savior of mankind, and the Christian faith, which in our royal intention, and the adventurers’ free profession, is the principal end [purpose] of this plantation.”

Source

“The Charter of Massachusetts Bay: 1629.” Yale Law School. Avalon Project. <http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/mass03.asp> (Accessed December 15, 2014).

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