The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• 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]

63

Act for Establishing the House of Assembly and the Laws to Be Made Therein

Text, complete and with the original spelling, taken from Browne, Archives of Maryland: Vol. i, 81–82.

1638

There had been an assembly of some sort in Maryland since 1635, but this document begins the recorded history of representative government in the colony. The proprietary government in Maryland was much like that in Pennsylvania, which is to say the governor representing the proprietor had almost unlimited power. The charters for both colonies, however, required that the proprietor pass laws with the advice and approbation of the freemen. In Pennsylvania William Penn took this part of the charter seriously, whereas in Maryland the absentee proprietor did not. His appointed governor, called Lieutenant General, essentially used the legislature created by this document as a rubber stamp. It is emblematic in the document below that certain specific individuals were invited to the Assembly by the Lieutenant General, while the freemen at large were not called but instead allowed to show up as they wished. Nevertheless, the mere existence of the legislature and the realities of colonial existence led the freemen to demand more and more real power. Gradually the legislature evolved into a true representative body, beginning with an act of the assembly that defined more clearly the relationship between the governor and the Assembly and laid out an orderly, systematic electoral process (see An Act Concerning the Calling of General Assemblies [66]).

Memorandum That at the first meeting of the Assembly on the 25th day of February 1638 was Enacted and ordeined one Act as followeth

An Act For the Establishing the house of Assembly and the Laws to be made therein

Whereas the Kings Majestie by his Letters pattents hath given and granted full free and absolute power and authority to the Lord Proprietary of this province to make and ordeine any laws apperteining to the state of this Province by and with the advice assent and approbation of the freemen of the same or of the greater part of them or of their Deligates or deputies in such sort and forme as to the said Lord proprietarie should seem best. By Vertue Whereof Severall writts or Summons have been directed to certain Gentlemen to appear personally at this Assembly and to the rest of the free men inhabiting within the Severall hundreds of this Colony and the Isle of Kent to elect their delegates or deputies in their names and steeds to be present at the same and accordingly all the freemen of the said severall hundreds and of the Isle of Kent (some few excepted) have elected certain persons to that end and the same their Election have subscribed and returned upon record and their said Dellegates and Deputies are now assembled accordingly. Be it therefore Enacted and ordeined by the said Lord Proprietarie of and with the advice assent and approbation of the Freemen and of the delegates and deputies assembled at this present Assembly that the said Severall Persons so elected and returned as aforesaid shall be and be called Burgesses and shall supply the places of all the freemen consenting or subscribing to such their election in the same manner and to all the same intents and purposes as the Burgesses of any burrough in England in the Parliament of England useth to Supply the place of the Inhabitants of the Burroughe whereof he is Elected Burges and that the said Gentlemen and Burgesses and such other Freemen (not having Consented to any the Elections as aforesaid) as now are or shall be at any time Assembled or any twelve or more of them whereof the Lieutenant Generall and Secretary of the Province to be allwaies two shall be called the house of Assembly; and that all Acts and ordinances assented unto and approved by the said house or by the Major part of the Persons assembled and afterward assented unto by the Lieutenant Generall in the name of the said Lord proprietarie and shall be adjudged and established for laws to all the same force and effect as if the said Lord proprietary and all the freemen of this Province were personally present and did assent to and approve of the same ...

[Approved by the freemen, and the Lieutenant General in behalf of the Lord Proprietor, March 12, 1638.]