Massachusetts+Bay+Company

=__Massachusetts Bay Company__=

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The Massachusetts Bay company is the England chartered company that established the Massachusetts Bay colony is New England. It was organized as the New England company. It also took over the Dorchester company which had established a short-lived fishing colony on Cape Ann in 1623. The first governor of the Massachusetts Bay was John Withrop(1588-1649).

__Early Years of Massachusetts Bay Company__
Discussions of the relationship between the clerical and civil polities that existed in early Massachusetts had tended to foster concepts of inextricability. The Puritan's clergy was usually accredited with decisions. The power of swaying governmental to a highly impressive extent. Immediately following the founding of the Massachusetts Bay colony; 1630-1660. Early challenges to the charter were adverted by the out break of the England Civil War in the 1640's. About 50 years, with little inference from England the Massachusetts Bay colony developed into a Puritan commonwealth.

__**The Puritan Businessmen**__
In 1628, a group of distinguished Puritan businessmen formed a venture named the governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, which was initially conceived as a profit-making endeavor in the New World. Preliminary voyages were made in 1628 and 1629, and resulted in the establishment of a small colony on Cape Ann and later on at Salem. The careful Puritan businessmen longed for additional protection for their scheme by requesting and receiving a charter from the king, who had been misinformed about their religious views. While still in England, the company members signed the Cambridge Agreement in 1629. In which they agreed to undertake the rigors of the Atlantic voyage is full authority over the charter and colony would be vested in to members there-selves. Those stockholders who didn't wish to migrate sold their shares to emigrates.

__**The Transformation**__
Through this action the Massachusetts Bay venture was transformed from a trading company into an organization dominated by Staunch Puritans with a religious agenda. Political power in the new colony was limited to fellow believers effectively creating a government run by religious officials who would enforce religious principles( also known as theocracy). **The Great Migration.** Beginning in 1630, Governor john Withrope, with the company charter, guided the arrival of nearly 1,000 colonists to the New World. Approximately 200 settlers died the first day and similar number returned to England in the spring of 1631. Newton, Lexington, Concord, Watertown, Charlestown, Dorchester, and many others soon famed out from Boston and became part of the map. Plymath became it's neighbor 40 miles to the south.

__**No Longer One of the Same**__
As time passed, church memberships declined as fewer people were able to offer proof of a conversion experience, which would convince themselves and others of their inclusion among the elect. This troublesome situation was remedied by the adoption of the Half-Way Covenant by many New England congregations. The Massachusetts Bay Company and the colony were one and the same until 1684, when the charter was taken. Later, in 1691, a new royal charter was granted to Massachusetts; the Plymath colony and Maine were absorbed.

=__**Beginning to End**__=

The Massachusetts Bay Company was the direct predecessor of the colony and the the state of Massachusetts. While this remained the official name of the colony until after the American Revolution, its history is usually considered to be the same as Massachusetts from 1691 when its new charter absorbed the Plymoth colony.

__**References**__

 * 1) http://www. google.com/search?g= Massachusetts+Bay+Company&ie=utf-8&oe=u
 * 2) http://www. infoplease.com/ce6/history/AO832127.html
 * 3) http:// content. scholastice.com/browse article.jsp?id= 5106
 * 4) http://www. u-s-history.com/pages h572.html