PREFACE THIS work has a double purpose. It is intended to exhibit in outline the early development of English colonization on its political and administrative side. At the same time it is a study of the origin of English-American political institutions. Because of this double object attention has been almost exclusively devoted to the continental colonies. Had the commercial and economic aspects of colonization been the subject of the work, the picture must needs have been painted on a larger canvas. The two volumes which are now published are concerned wholly with the American side of the subject. But they do not tell the whole of the story, even so far as it relates to the seventeenth century. Another volume will follow, the subject of which will be the beginnings of imperial administration and control. In that volume the British side of the problem will be discussed. The entire work, while serving as an introduction to American institutional history, will at the same time, it is hoped, illustrate the principles of British colonization, so far as those were revealed in the early relations between the home government and its colonies on the North American continent. The author is fully aware that the attempt to analyze and compare the institutions of fifteen colonies, and to trace their political history, even in part, during a period of half a century or more, is a work of some complexity In his effort to do this he has limited himself, in nearly all instances, to the seventeenth century and to the material which was accessible for that period of time. This it was necessary to do in order to show what the governmental system was before the transition from the chartered colonies to the system of royal provinces occurred. As a result of pursuing this course the author, in the case of some colonies, has found himself hampered by the fragmentariness of accessible material. But that is a condition which confronts every student of origins. Notwithstanding this defect, it is believed that sufficient evidence has been brought together to reveal the essential features of American institutions as they were at the beginning. That evidence, as it has been classified in this work, will, it is hoped, furnish a background from which the later colonial period and the Revolution will become more intelligible. If the critic seeks other explanations of defects, they will probably be found to result from the personal equation for every book must have an author-and from the fact that this is a pioneer work in the domain of early American institutional history. The inquiries, of which this work is a result, were undertaken, years ago, at the suggestion of Professor John W. Burgess. Special thanks are also due to Professor Franklin H. Giddings, who has read the work in manuscript, and to Dr. W. Roy Smith, of Bryn Mawr College, who has assisted in reading the proofs. The index has been prepared by Dr. Newton D. Mereness, of Cornell University. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, March, 1904. CONTENTS The purpose and character of the work. An institutional history of the British-American colonies in the Revival of interest in colonization in age of Elizabeth due to con- Earliest sketch of large proprietary grants The Southampton adventurers with Gilbert Charter of Raleigh, 1584. Earliest suggestion of province of . Governor Lane and the colonists at Roanoke Settlement, officials, Indian relations, food supply. First abandon- Governor White and second attempt to settle at Roanoke White returns to England. Disappearance of the colonists and |