Proprietary colony

A colony granted by a sovereign to an individual or group, called proprietors, with authority to govern and distribute its land. Proprietors held these powers under a charter or grant rather than as sovereign rulers.

Colonial charter: A legal document establishing a colony and defining its government, territory, or privileges. The charter or grant specified the proprietors’ authority and the colony’s legal relationship to its sovereign.
Province of Maryland: An English colony founded in 1632 under the proprietary authority of the Calvert family. The Calverts’ long-lived grant made Maryland a defining example of proprietary government.
English colonization of the Americas: The establishment and expansion of English settlements and colonies in the Americas. Proprietary grants became one English method of organizing and financing American colonization.
Restoration colonies: English colonies established or reorganized during the Restoration era after 1660. Several major proprietary grants belonged to the Crown’s broader post-Restoration colonial expansion.
Lord proprietor: An individual granted proprietary rights to govern and distribute land in a colony. A lord proprietor exercised the governing and land-distribution powers at the center of this arrangement.
Province of Pennsylvania: An English colony founded in 1681 under William Penn’s proprietary authority. Penn’s grant joined extensive governing powers with a planned program of settlement.
Royal charter: A formal grant issued by a monarch that establishes rights, privileges, or institutions. Royal charters supplied legal authority for several proprietary colonial grants.
Dominion of New England: An administrative union of English colonies in New England and the mid-Atlantic from 1686 to 1689. The Dominion’s centralization threatened local institutions and proprietary jurisdictions.
Land grant: A formal transfer of rights to a parcel of land by a government or other authority. Proprietors used grants to allocate colonial land to settlers and other recipients.
Province of Carolina: An English colony granted to eight Lords Proprietors in 1663 and later divided into North and South Carolina. Its founding grant shows proprietary rule vested in a corporate group rather than one proprietor.

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