The document summarizes the different types of colonial political systems in British North America: royal colonies, charter colonies, and proprietary colonies. Royal colonies were directly ruled by the English monarchy and had governors appointed by the king. Charter colonies were granted self-governance through a royal charter and could elect their own governors. Proprietary colonies were granted to proprietors who had full governing rights and appointed governors. All colonial governments had a governor with executive power, a legislature consisting of an elected lower house and appointed upper house, and followed certain basic principles like elected legislatures and democratic systems, though not all citizens could vote.

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Colonial Political System
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Governmental Types of Colonies
Royal
• Virginia, the Carolinas, New Hampshire,
Vermont, New Jersey, Georgia
Charter
• Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts
Bay
Proprietary
• Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware

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1. Royal Colonies
 Established in North America by England, France, the Netherlands and
Sweden over the course of the 17th and 18th .
 Controlled by the king of the sovereign nation, who named a governor to each
colony and, in English colonies, a council to assist him.
 Directly ruled by the English monarchy.
 The governor who could be removed at will by the king and the council
derived their authority from two key documents, the colonial commission and
the set of royal instructions.

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2. Charter Colonies
 Established in 17th century.
 King granted a charter to the colonial government establishing the rules under
which the colony was to be governed.
 Consisted of political corporations created by letters patent which gave the
grantees control of the land and the powers of legislative government.
 Charter colonies could elect their own governors as opposed to proprietors.

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3. Proprietary Colonies
 Organized in the 17th century in territories granted by the English Crown to
one or more proprietors who had full governing rights.
 Lord proprietors, rather than the king, appointed the governor and this is what
makes Proprietary Colonies had different forms of government than the other
two.

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Governor
 Some of the royal governors who worked at the will of British Crown were
well-trained bureaucrat.
 The Governor directly represented the Crown or the Proprietor all the while
pledging his duty to the people over whom he was placed.
 Governer had the executive power in the colonial environment to rule the
colony.
 The governor was responsible for the making of laws, taxes and made decisions,
which were dealt with the colony

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Legislature
 Consist of the lower house or assembly, which was elected by people, and the
upper house or council which was appointed by the governor.
 Not all of the people in colony could choose the legislature.
 Chosen by the men who owned land, paid taxes, had an annual income, and
were a member of a Christian church.
 Had limited powers in the government.
 Their voices could do nothing contrary to the laws of England and the governor
could veto their actions.

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Assembly & Council
 Assembly was the only body who directly elected by people to represent them
in the government.
 Assembly was in charge to be the chief of legislative power, but its acts could
easily be vetoed by the Governor.
 Council were consisted of twelve men, with the exception of Massachusetts
which had twenty-eight and Maryland which had three, to act as a board of
advisors to the Governor, making them the highest court of the colony.

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Basic Principles of All Colonies
1. All of the colonial government systems in the thirteen colonies
elected their own legislature (parliament).
2. All of the colonial government systems were democratic.
3. All of the colonial government systems had a governor, a
governor’s court and a court system
(Alchin, 2012)

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