Massachusetts. General Court

The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, chartered by the English Crown in 1629, sat as a General Court, which after the 1630 emigration to America became the government of the Massachusetts Bay colony. It consisted of colony freemen (company stockholders); and the governor, deputy governor, and assistants (magistrates) chosen by them. The latter group met separately as a Court of Assistants, but in 1634 its legislative powers were ceded to the General Court as a whole (Mass Recs 1: 117). At the same time it was agreed that freemen were to be represented by elected deputies (Mass Recs 1: 118); from 1644 these met separately as a House of Deputies, leaving the assistants in their nonjudicial capacity to serve in effect as the upper house of the General Court, the designation of Court of Assistants being reserved for their service in a judicial capacity. Current and certain former assistants also functioned executively from 1629 as a standing council. (See: Massachusetts. Council. Agency history record.)

In 1686, the 1629 charter having been revoked, the General Court ceased to function and governing power was in a crown-appointed Council and president (Joseph Dudley, 1686) and then governor (Sir Edmund Andros, 1686-1689) (the Dominion of New England). After the deposition of Andros and a brief interim government by the Council for Safety of the People and Conservation of the Peace (Apr.-June 1689), colonial government was reinstated: the governor, deputy governor, and assistants elected in 1686 (Mass Recs 5: 513) resumed office, the assistants as Council serving both as executive body under the governor and as upper house of the General Court, while newly elected deputies (now more often called representatives) formed the lower house.

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