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In 1686, the 1629 charter having been revoked, the General Court ceased to function and governing power was in a crown-appointed Council and president (Joseph Dudley, 1686) and then governor (Sir Edmund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.

From 1692, under the charter of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, the General Court chose from among its annually elected members twenty-eight as Council, again to serve as executive body (but now under a crown-appointed governor) and as legislative upper house. The remaining members served as the lower house, regularly designated by 1705 as the House of Representatives.

When representatives elected to the General Court were discharged in Sept. 1774 by Gov. Thomas Gage, they met as scheduled in October and resolved themselves into a provincial congress, three of which governed successively outside Boston until July 1775, when the General Court reconvened and elected a Council to serve as upper house and as executive body without governor--the resulting government to be known as the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, and from 1776 as the State of Massachusetts Bay. Meanwhile Gage governed in Boston with councillors appointed by royal writ of mandamus, from Aug. 1774 until the British evacuation in Mar. 1776.

Under the 1780 Constitution, the General Court was configured in its modern form, with a Senate as upper house (whose membership was originally elected annually to serve either as senators or councillors, the latter being chosen for an entirely separate executive Council by joint legislative vote), and a House of Representatives as lower house (Const Pt 2, C 1)

NAME AUTHORITY NOTE. Series relating to the agency described above can be found by searching the following access point for the time period stated: 1629-1686, 1689-present--Massachusetts. General Court.

From the description of Agency history record. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 145429423