Differentiate among, define, and describe the following types of English Colonies: Royal, Proprietary, and Private.

Essay by some_guiUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, April 2004

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In early North America, settlements called colonies began as chartered proprietorships. What this meant was that each English North American possession which had its beginnings by English law originated as a proprietary colony. Later, all but five of those colonies became Royal, or crown colonies.

The legislature in a royal colony consisted of a crown appointed and crown controlled seven to twelve member council and lower house. These members were elected by popular vote. These members were known as the assembly. In most colonies the seats of the council were chosen solely at the discretion of the crown. The only exception was Massachusetts, in which the assembly appointed all council members. In most cases, this was not a significant advantage, as only a small few were allowed to voted. The vote was limited to only white males that own a significant amount of property.

Throughout the entirety of English colonial America, the royal, or crown form of government was the most common.

At one time or another, every colony except Delaware and Pennsylvania was under the control of the crown. Royal colonies had a governor, who was also known as the chief executive officer. The governor was not only known as the chief executive officer, but he was also the head of the executive branch of that colony's government. The governor was elected by the crown and could be removed without any notice or reason for being removed.

Although there were many clashes over the power in the colonies, the governor had specific royal power, which allowed him to overrule sanctions without getting the popular vote, but in many situations the governor had to request permission to make certain bills to the status of acts. Even after the Governor, who was also the military commander, and the council members approved...