ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the diverse institutions of colonial government and how they interacted. The governmental system of their own colony affected the lives of the colonists much more than the imperial government. The first colonial assemblies were modelled on the governing bodies of commercial companies. Political developments in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were another clear-cut example of the transformation of an English commercial company's charter into a pattern of colonial government. The colonial American viewed the governor as the representative of royal authority; the governor's council as the counterpart of the House of Lords; and the assembly as equivalent to the House of Commons. The colonial court system was a simplified version of the English judicial system. Justices of the peace had jurisdiction over the least important civil and criminal cases. The colonial legislatures concerned themselves with all aspects of colonial life: care of the poor, marriage, and divorce, roads and bridges, and, most importantly, taxation.
