MASSACHUSETTS,
FIRST CHARTER OF

(March 4, 1629), was granted by King Charles I. In June of 1630, ten years after the Pilgrims founded the Plymouth Colony, Governor John Winthrop founded the Holy Commonwealth of Massachusetts with 700 people sailing in eleven ships. This began the Great Migration, which saw more than twenty thousand Puritans embark for New England in the pursuing sixteen years.286

The First Charter of Massachusetts, March 4, 1629, stated:

And forasmuch as the good and prosperous success of the plantation of the said parts of New England and for the directing, ruling, and disposeing of all other Matters and Things, whereby our said People … maie be soe religiously, peaceablie, and civilly governed, as their good life and orderlie Conversation, maie wynn and incite the Natives of the Country to the Knowledg and Obedience of the onlie true God and Savior of Mankinde, and the Christian Fayth, which, in our Royall Intention, and the Adventurers free profession, is the principall Ende of this Plantation.287