Who appointed the council that advised the royal governor of a colony in america?

ROYAL GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA. The English settlement of North America was undertaken by groups of private individuals; the colonies were only gradually brought under the control of royal government. By 1763, nine of the thirteen colonies that would rebel in 1775 had royal governors. Pennsylvania and Maryland remained in the hands of their proprietors, and Connecticut and Rhode Island continued to elect their own governors under their seventeenth-century charters. Massachusetts was anomalous, with a royally appointed governor operating under a revised charter of 1692, until its privileges were wiped out by the Massachusetts Government Act of 1774, one of the so-called Intolerable (or Coercive) Acts.

Every colony had an elected assembly. The eight royal colonies had a governor and council (the upper house of the legislature) appointed by the crown and an assembly (lower house) chosen by a larger and more broadly based white male electorate than anywhere in Britain. The governor, as executive head of the legislature and the king's chief representative, was expected to execute the instructions he received from London, usually from the Board of Trade. The colonial assemblies waged a century-long struggle to limit his authority. After 1680 the assemblies had authority to initiate all colonial laws. The governor either vetoed the laws or sent them to the Privy Council, which had authority to accept or cancel (disallow) them. The assemblies also gained the all-important right to make financial appropriations and supervise actual expenditures; thereby, they got the whip hand on the governor and the provincial judges by controlling their salaries. The imperial government tried to make the assemblies establish fixed annual salaries, but the assemblies fought off all of the crown's efforts to establish a fixed civil list in the colonies, which would have given the governor a powerful patronage weapon. The assemblies were particularly successful in gaining ground against the governor during wartime, when they could bargain harder for additional power against a governor whose top priority was to have money available to pay for pressing military needs.

Sometimes the imperial government helped its governors, as when it succeeded after 1761 in establishing the governor's right to appoint judges "during the pleasure of the Crown," whereas the assemblies had fought to permit them to retain office "during good behavior." (Resentment over this point is reflected in the Declaration of Independence.) But London could also undercut its representative. After 1763 the secretary of state for the American colonies began appointing an increasing number of imperial officials, including the naval officer responsible for enforcing the Navigation Acts, an innovation that further reduced the patronage the governor controlled.

Royal governors acted as mediators between the demands of the imperial government in London and the needs and desires of the colonial oligarchs. Many royal governors were intelligent, clever politicians who understood that ingratiating themselves with the local leaders was the best way to persuade them to adhere to imperial controls. When there was a congruence of interest between London and the colony, the job of being a royal governor could be relatively pleasant. More often, however, the royal governor was obliged by his superiors to impose rules and regulations that local leaders resented or resisted. When that happened, a royal governor would need all the talents and powers he could muster to chivvy, cajole, and if necessary, coerce the colony into compliance. Successful royal government required the governors—indeed all imperial officials—to be honest, disinterested, and savvy politicians. Unfortunately for the prestige and, ultimately, the survival of royal government in America, the job of royal governor could also be extremely lucrative, and it attracted too many men who were venial, grasping, and contemptuous of the Americans they were supposed to govern effectively.

The only colonial governor who wholeheartedly supported the Revolution and remained in office was Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut. Joseph Wanton Sr. of Rhode Island was deemed by the assembly to be a lukewarm supporter of resistance and was replaced by Nicholas Cooke. Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts had already given way to a military government led by Major General Thomas Gage; the former governor died in exile in London. William Tryon, who served as royal governor in North Carolina and New York, returned to his former life as an army officer, became the senior general officer of the Provincial (Loyalist) troops, and commanded several significant raids to suppress the rebels. William Franklin, the illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin, was the last royal governor of New Jersey, and he too was prominent in trying to organize Loyalists to fight the rebels. Governors Josiah Martin, who succeeded Tryon in North Carolina, Sir William Campbell of South Carolina, Sir James Wright of Georgia, and John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore, of Virginia were all forced early in the war to flee for their own safety. Their overly optimistic reports of potential Loyalist support in the South led the British to send Major General Henry Clinton on an ill-fated expedition against Charleston, South Carolina, in the summer of 1776.

SEE ALSO Campbell, William; Charleston Expedition of Clinton in 1776; Disallowance; Franklin, William; Hutchinson, Thomas; Intolerable (or Coercive) Acts; Martin, Josiah; Murray, John; Townshend Acts; Trade, The Board of; Trumbull, Jonathan, Sr.; Tryon, William; Wright, Sir James, Governor.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andrews, Charles M. The Colonial Background of the American Revolution. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1924.

――――――. The Colonial Period of American History. 4 vols. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1934–1938.

Bailyn, Bernard. The Origins of American Politics. New York: Knopf, 1968.

Beer, George L. British Colonial Policy, 1754–1765. New York: Macmillan Company, 1907.

Labaree, Leonard W. Royal Government in America: A Study of the British Colonial System before 1763. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1930.

Gipson, Lawrence H. The British Empire before the American Revolution. 15 vols. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967–1970.

Greene, Evarts Boutell. The Provincial Governor in the English Colonies of North America. New York: Longmans, Green, 1898.

Greene, Jack P. The Quest for Power: The Lower Houses of Assembly in the Southern Royal Colonies, 1689–1776. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1963.

Marshall, Peter J., ed. The Oxford History of the British Empire. Vol. 2: The Eighteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Osgood, Herbert L. The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century. 4 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1924.

                            revised by Harold E. Selesky

Upper legislative house of Colony of Virginia

Governor's Council

Seal of the Governor's Council circa 1725

Upper house

The Governor's Council (also known as the "Council of State" or simply "the Council") was the upper house of the colonial legislature (the House of Burgesses was the other house) in the Colony of Virginia from 1607 until the American Revolution in 1776. Consisting of 12 men who, after the 1630s were appointed by the British Sovereign, the Governor's Council also served as an advisory body to the Virginia Royal Governor and as the highest judicial body in the colony.

Organization

The Council consisted of no more than 12 men who served lifetime appointments to advise the governor and were, together with the governor, the highest court in the colony. Thus this body served as a legislative, executive, and judicial body. Modeled after the British House of Lords, the Governor's Council went through a definite evolution as the Virginia colony grew.

During much of the colonial period, the governor was absentee and the lieutenant governor was the beneficiary of the council's advice. When both were absent, the longest-serving member of the council, entitled the President of the council, would serve as acting governor.[1]

During the Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell between 1652 and 1660, the House of Burgesses elected the members of the council. After the restoration of the monarchy, the Crown again appointed the council, typically from among the landed and wealthy Virginia planters.

History

Virginia Company (1607–1624)

Virginia was founded under a charter granted by King James I to the Virginia Company in 1606. In 1607, the company's governing board in London appointed a small group of seven men to manage the day-to-day affairs of the colony on their behalf after the first settlers landed on the Virginia Peninsula.[1] On April 26, 1607, the Council elected Captain Edward Maria Wingfield as its President, and he would later choose the site for the founding of the Jamestown settlement.

There was a lack of strong leadership among the council, which became apparent as soon as they landed at Jamestown in 1607. Internal dissension, allegations of lying, and the unexpected deaths of some councilors reduced the Governor's Council to a small group and finally only one person by the winter of 1608–1609.[2] At that point, the Virginia Company essentially declared martial law and suspended the minimal semblance of collaborative government.[1] The era of near-dictatorial power by the governor ended in 1618 following the king's issuance of the third royal charter.

As a result, a representative and consultative government was created. It was composed of the following establishments: a governor appointed by the Virginia Company of London, and a council of state, whose members were also chosen by the Virginia Company. The Governor's Council was charged with assisting the new governor in the execution of his duties, the first of which was, "the Advancement of the Honour and Service of God, and the Enlargement of his Kingdom amongst the Heathen People."[3] The other branch of government was a General Assembly that included the Council and a House of Burgesses that included two "burgesses" from every town, hundred, and particular plantation "chosen by the [free] inhabitants thereof". This new political structure necessarily reduced the power of the governor, a previously unilaterally powerful office that had been appointed for life. Under the new charter, sometimes called the Great Charter, Council decisions were made by majority vote, and the governor was only able to cast the deciding vote in the case of a tie. The General Assembly, which included both a popularly elected (albeit not universally enfranchised) and an Executive-Legislative hybrid based somewhat on the British system, was to be the voice of the colonists in Virginia, providing a check on the power of the governor.[2]

Members of Virginia's first legislative assembly, which was a unicameral session including burgesses, the council, and the governor, gathered at the rough-hewn Anglican Jamestown Church on July 30, 1619. This was the first representative government in the European colonies in North America.[2] Before they adjourned, the assembly had adopted new laws for the colonists as well as programs designed to encourage settlement and improve economic growth in Virginia.[2]

Royal colony (1624–1776)

In 1624, the Virginia Company's charter was revoked by King James I, and the Virginia Colony was transferred to royal authority as a crown colony. The Council continued to be appointed and serve as advisors to the now royally-appointed governor and serve as the highest court of the colony.[1] Until 1643, the council and burgesses continued to sit as a unicameral legislature. In the 1652–1660 period when Britain was not a monarchy due to the overthrow of King Charles I and execution in the English Civil War and erection of the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell, the members of the council, instead of being appointed by the head of state in London, were elected by the burgesses in Virginia.

After 1643, the General Assembly became bicameral and the Council was the upper house. The council continued to exercise legislative, administrative, and judicial functions.

Although the monarch appointed the members of the council, resident royal governors or lieutenant governors (who acted as governor in the absence of the royal governor) often made recommendations to the king when a vacancy occurred. The appointees were almost always among the most prominent planters and merchants in the colony.[1] "The members of the Council were almost all wealthy and both socially and politically prominent. Independent wealth was required both for the social standing necessary for membership and also to permit the members to be absent from their families and plantations for long periods of time," according to the Encyclopedia Virginia.

During the years from 1643–1676, the Council met at the upper house of the General Assembly annually. From 1676–1776, the Governor's Council met about 8 times a decade as a legislative body, but starting in the middle of the 1600s the Council met quarterly for judicial sessions. Additionally, they convened as advisors to the governor at least annually, often for weeks at a time. In order to compensate the councilors for their time, starting in the 1640s the assembly granted them a dispensation from taxes. Encyclopedia Virginia states that "Membership on the governor's Council was the highest civil office to which natives or residents of the colony could normally aspire, and membership on the Council enabled wealthy and influential men to increase the wealth and influence of themselves and their families."

The extant written records of the council begin in 1680 and are housed at the Library of Virginia.

References

1. ^ a b c d e Tarter, Brent (19 Jan 2012). "The Governor's Council". Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
2. ^ a b c d "Laws at Jamestown". Jamestown Settlement - Yorktown Victory Center. Retrieved July 19, 2012.
3. ^ Ordinances for Virginia; July 24-August 3, 1621

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