Proprietary colonies were those created by a royal charter granting both land and government to a private actor, usually an individual or a small group of people. The first of these in North America was George Calvert’s Avalon settlement in Neweoundland, but the first in the present-day United States was Maryland, granted to Cecil Calvert in 1632. Others include East and West Jersey, New York, Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
Proprietorship departed from earlier forms of corporate colonization organized by joint-stock companies such as the Virginia Company and the Massachusetts Bay Company. The insubordination among members of and disappointing profits earned by those companies angered the Crown, subsequently resulting in the assumption of royal authority over the colonies bearing their names. The proprietary structure allowed the Crown to influence colonies more effectively than did the corporate form. The Crown could use its grants as a form of patronage to reward those whose compliance could be assured, rather than the intransigent investors of the corporate colonies.
Proprietors claimed sweeping authority under their charters, and the Crown believed that a strong and loyal executive provided the best guarantee that the colony would remain faithful to England and its interests. For example, Maryland’s charter, modeled on the extensive privileges granted to the lord bishop of Durham by William the Conqueror, granted near-feudal powers to its proprietors, including ecclesiastical, military, and diplomatic rights.
Proprietors used their authority not only to pursue profit but also to achieve social goals that eluded them in England. Calvert promoted Maryland as a haven for persecuted Catholics. William Penn defended toleration as a basic principle of his colony. The Carolina proprietors, led by Anthony Ashley Cooper and John Locke, created an elaborate structure of government they called the Fundamental Constitutions, which provided for broad social toleration within an aristocratic framework. However, proprietors often faced pressure from both their colonial tenants and the Crown. Settlers often sought greater freedom from rulers regarded as insensitive to their situation. The Crown, meanwhile, also restricted the proprietors’ powers.
As the settlements grew larger and brushed up against indigenous and imperial neighbors, the issues involved with their administration grew more complicated. Moreover, the development of substantial colonial estates created classes of increasingly independent colonists, more capable of challenging the proprietors. In Carolina, the 1680s reflected a period of intense rivalry between the proprietors and their increasingly restive tenants, during which the Fundamental Constitutions were revised to expand the role of the assembly.
Under pressure from both Crown and colonist, all of the proprietary colonies in North America, save Pennsylvania, acceded to royal authority by the time of the American Revolution. In some cases, local residents forced the change, as with Carolina, which royalized in two parts between 1719 and 1729. Some proprietors wished to liquidate their claims for profit or to shed the burden of governing their fractious populations. A financially struggling William Penn attempted to sell Pennsylvania for ?60,000 during the 1730s. The proprietors of East and West Jersey begged for royal intervention in the face of virulent opposition by their settlers, and their request was granted in 1702.
Other colonies were brought under Crown control by simple royal fiat. In New England, proprietary claims encompassing Maine and New Hampshire were ultimately folded into the royal government of Massachusetts. New York was royalized when its proprietor, the Duke of York, ascended to England’s throne as King James II in 1685. In the years following the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the Calvert and Penn claims were revoked, though both were ultimately reinstated, if only temporarily. By the 18th century, British imperial policy turned in favor of direct royal control of its holdings. Georgia, founded in 1731, reflected this new direction, with the grant of a more expansive role for the state and the imposition of limits on the power of the assembly.
Further reading; John H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2006); James H. Hutson, Pennsylvania Politics, 1746-1770: The Movement for Royal Government and Its Consequences (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1972).
—Simon Finger
World History
