12: [Dorchester Agreement] - Donald S. Lutz, Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History [1998]
Edition used:
Colonial Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary History, ed. Donald S. Lutz (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1998).
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- Preface
- Introductory Essay
- New Hampshire: 1: [agreement of the Settlers At Exeter In New Hampshire]
- 2: General Laws and Liberties of New Hampshire
- Massachusetts: 3: [agreement Between the Settlers At New Plymouth] (the Mayflower Compact)
- 4: [plymouth Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity]
- 5: [the Salem Covenant of 1629]
- 6: [agreement of the Massachusetts Bay Company At Cambridge, England]
- 7: [the Watertown Covenant of July 30, 1630]
- 8: [massachusetts Election Agreement]
- 9: The Oath of a Freeman, Or of a Man to Be Made Free
- 10: [the Massachusetts Agreement On the Legislature]
- 11: [cambridge Agreement]
- 12: [dorchester Agreement]
- 13: [cambridge Agreement On a Town Council]
- 14: [massachusetts Agreement On the Legislature]
- 15: The Oath of a Freeman
- 16: [salem Oath For Residents]
- 17: [watertown Agreement On Civil Officers]
- 18: [the Enlarged Salem Covenant of 1636]
- 19: [plymouth Agreement]
- 20: [pilgrim Code of Law]
- 21: [dedham Covenant]
- 22: [the Massachusetts Body of Liberties]
- 23: [the Combination of the Inhabitants Upon the Piscataqua River For Government]
- 24: [massachusetts Bicameral Ordinance]
- 25: [massachusetts Ordinance On the Legislature]
- 26: The Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts
- 27: [massachusetts Ordinance On Legislative Procedure]
- 28: [towns of Wells, Gorgiana, and Piscataqua Form an Independent Government]
- 29: [the Cambridge Agreement of October 4, 1652]
- 30: [puritan] Laws and Liberties
- 31: [an Act of the General Court]
- Rhode Island: 32: [providence Agreement]
- 33: [government of Pocasset]
- 34: [newport Agreement]
- 35: [the Government of Portsmouth]
- 36: Plantation Agreement At Providence
- 37: [organization of the Government of Rhode Island]
- 38: [warwick Agreement]
- 39: Acts and Orders of 1647
- 40: Charter of Providence
- 41: [general Assembly of Rhode Island Is Divided Into Two Houses]
- Connecticut: 42: Plantation Covenant At Quinnipiack
- 43: Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
- 44: Guilford Covenant
- 45: Structure of Town Governments
- 46: Fundamental Articles of New Haven
- 47: [connecticut Oath of Fidelity]
- 48: Capitall Lawes of Connecticut, Established By the Generall Court the First of December, 1642
- 49: The Government of Guilford
- 50: New Haven Fundamentals
- 51: [majority Vote of Deputies and Magistrates Required For the Passage of Laws In Connecticut]
- 52: Connecticut Code of Laws
- 53: Preface to the General Laws and Liberties of Connecticut Colony Revised and Published By Order of the General Court Held At Hartford In October 1672
- 54: [division of the Connecticut General Assembly Into Two Houses]
- New York: 55: [a Letter From Governor Richard Nicolls to the Inhabitants of Long Island]
- 56: Charter of Liberties and Privileges
- New Jersey: 57: Fundamentals of West New Jersey
- Pennsylvania: 58: Concessions to the Province of Pennsylvania
- 59: Charter of Liberties and Frame of Government of the Province of Pennsylvania In America
- 60: An Act For Freedom of Conscience
- 61: [pennsylvania Charter of Liberties]
- Maryland: 62: Orders Devised and Published By the House of Assembly to Be Observed During the Assembly
- 63: Act For Establishing the House of Assembly and the Laws to Be Made Therein
- 64: An Act For Church Liberties
- 65: An Act For Swearing Allegeance
- 66: An Act What Persons Shall Be Called to Every General Assembly and an Act Concerning the Calling of General Assemblies
- 67: An Act For the Liberties of the People
- 68: [maryland Toleration Act]
- Virginia: 69: Articles, Laws, and Orders, Divine, Politic, and Martial For the Colony In Virginia
- 70: [laws Enacted By the First General Assembly of Virginia]
- 71: Constitution For the Council and Assembly In Virginia
- 72: [laws and Orders Concluded By the Virginia General Assembly]
- 73: Act Relating to the Biennial and Other Assemblies and Regulating Elections and Members In North Carolina
- South Carolina: 74: Act to Ascertain the Manner and Form of Electing Members to Represent the Province
- Georgia: 75: Act to Ascertain the Manner and Form of Electing Members to Represent the Inhabitants of This Province In the Commons House of Assembly
- Confederations: 76: [the New England Confederation]
- 77: [the Albany Plan of Union]
- 78: The Articles of Confederation
- 79: [william Penn’s Plan of Union]
- 80: [joseph Galloway’s Plan of Union]
12
[Dorchester Agreement]
The text is taken from the Dorchester Town Records: Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners (Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, 1880), 3. The original spelling is retained. The text is complete as far as the records of the town are concerned—the gap is in the original.
October 8, 1633
In addition to establishing a town meeting, this is the oldest surviving record of a smaller representative body being selected to serve in place of the town meeting between meetings. The members of this smaller representative body were usually called town “selectmen.” Once these representative bodies were established, the fundamental political problem became one of controlling them so they effectively continued to reflect popular will.
An agreement made by the whole consent and vote of the plantation made Mooneday 8th of October, 1633.
Inprimus it is ordered that for the generall good and well ordering of the affayres of the Plantation their shall be every Mooneday before the Court by eight of the Clocke in the morning, and prsently upon the beating of the drum, a generall meeting of the inhabitants of the Plantation att the meeteing house, there to settle (and sett downe) such orders as may tend to the generall good as aforesayd; and every man to be bound thereby without gaynesaying or resistance. It is also agreed that there shall be twelve men selected out of the Company that may or the greatest p’t of them meete as aforesayd to determine as aforesayd, yet so as it is desired that the most of the Plantation will keepe the meeting constantly and all that are there although none of the Twelve shall have a free voyce as any of the 12 and that the greate[r] vote both of the 12 and the other shall be of force and efficasy as aforesayd. And it is likewise ordered that all things concluded as aforesayd shall stand in force and be obeyed vntill the next monethly meeteing and afterwardes if it be not contradicted and otherwise ordered upon the sayd monethly meete[ing] by the greatest p’te of those that are prsent as aforesayd. Moreover, because the Court in Winter in the vacansy of the sayd [ ] this said meeting to continue till the first Mooneday in the moneth (7) mr Johnson, mr Eltwid Pummery (mr. Richards), John Pearce, George Hull, William Phelps, Thom. ffoard.
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