ments. or less adequate political control of the projected settleThe first successful settlement within the domain of the Plymouth Company was made by a group of separatists who, finding the England of James I a difficult place to live in, sought to establish a government more to their liking in the New World. The association of seventy London merchants who financed this enterprise subscribed £10 each and made careful provision for a money return. In the articles of agreement between the adventurers and planters of Plymouth it was stipulated that the parties to the contract were to "continue their joint stock and partnership together, the space of seven years, during which time, all profits and benefits that are got by trade . . . or any other means of any person or persons remain still in the common stock." The planters were to labor on the common fields for the common good. It was hoped that a considerable revenue would be realized, if not from actual products, then from the profits of trade. For several years, however, the colony was hardly more than self-sustaining. The Pilgrim Fathers relished, no more than the "vagabond gentlemen of Virginia, toil that did not result in immediate personal gain. In 1624 the scheme was abandoned, and every man was given one acre of land where he might "set corn for his own particular." Thereafter there was plenty of food. But the adventurers wanted marketable goods, and their exactions proved so annoying to the planters that the agreement was dissolved (1627). The colony undertook to buy up the interests of the stockholders for £18,000 to be paid in yearly installments of £200 each. Certain leading men, Bradford, Winslow, Standish, Brewster and others, became responsible for the fulfillment of this pledge. In the case of the Massachusetts Bay colony, the adven- Osgood, turers went in person to America, carrying their charter with I, 141-152. them, and thus the association became identified with the colony. Every stockholder was entitled to a voice in the management of the company's affairs and attended in person the stockholders' meeting, known as the General Court, Eggleston, Land System of N. Eng. Colonies. Lucas, 87-123. Osgood, II, Pt. III, Winsor, III, 295-310, 326-330, 366, 367. until the increase in the number of settlements necessitated the election of representatives. The charter secured a grant of land extending from the Merrimac River to the Plymouth line and from "sea to sea." Within this territory new colonies were planted from time to time on lands granted free of charge by the General Court. Ipswich, Newbury, Charlestown, Dedham, and the Connecticut River towns, Hadley, Hatfield, and Northampton, were offshoots from the parent colony and followed each in turn the same general plan. The settlers joined forces for the prosecution of undertakings that were too great for individual initiative, such as the clearing of the forest, the cultivation of the first crops, the putting up of houses, barns, fences, sawmills, grist mills, etc. As soon as practicable each of the proprietors in the common lands was assigned his portion and proceeded to cultivate on his own account. Providence Plantations and the Connecticut towns were also independent ventures financed by the planters themselves. Being under no obligation to pay tribute to a body of adventurers in England, the colonies grew rapidly in population and wealth. By 1700 New England, despite her natural disadvantages, was the most densely settled province in America. Proprietary Grants. It was not unusual for private persons with sufficient means to secure a grant of land and undertake the planting of a colony as one might set about the cultivation of a distant estate. Such colonial enterprises were feudal in character. The undertaker owned the land and met the expenses of the shiploads of laborers sent out to develop its resources and was, in consequence, entitled to whatever revenues in the way of rents, receipts from mines or from customs duties might accrue. Sir Fernando Gorges, a friend of Sir Walter Ralegh and member of the Council for New England, despairing of success through company management, secured, together with John Mason, another member of the Council, the Laconia grant (1623). The Council bestowed upon these gentlemen the exclusive right to plant settlements along the coast between the Kennebec and Merrimac rivers and the monopoly of fisheries and trade. A fishing station was established at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, and salt works were there set up. Salt, dried fish, furs secured in trade with the Indians, clapboards and pipestaves, made up the returns from this venture, but the cost of maintaining the colony exceeded the income. The workmen sent out were fishmongers from Billingsgate "hired at extreme rates," a thriftless and lawless crew who lived extravagantly and worked only under compulsion. Gorges soon abandoned the enterprise as unprofitable. In 1629 the grant was divided. Gorges acquired control of the territory between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec and became Lord Proprietor of Maine. Mason secured title to the lands south of the Piscataqua. Neither proprietor did much toward the actual colonization of his territory. In 1623 the first Lord Baltimore, who as member of the London Company had made a futile attempt to found a colony in Virginia, obtained from the king a charter making him sole proprietor of the territory lying between the Potomac River and the fortieth parallel,-lands originally granted to the defunct Company. His son Cecil succeeded to the title that same year and became Lord Proprietor of Maryland. Twenty gentlemen and three hundred laboring men, well stocked with provisions, made the first settlement the following year. Lord Baltimore gave careful attention to the welfare of his colony and expended £20,000 out of his own purse in forwarding supplies. The climate was genial and the soil rich. The cultivators were soon able to send corn to New England in exchange for salt fish, and procured hogs and cattle from Virginia. Religious toleration offset the disadvantages of feudal government in the minds of Roman Catholics, Quakers, and other dissenters for whom there was no place in Old or New England. A batch of proprietaries dates from the Restoration. Charles II was bent on asserting the royal prerogative not only in England but in America as well. The unclaimed territory afforded opportunity for rewarding his friends and Osgood, I, Pt. II, Ch. IX. Winsor, Crit. Hist. III, 517–525. Old Virginia and Her |