The Religious Congregation.-A second agency which figured largely in the settlement of America was the religious brotherhood,or congregation,of men and women brought together in thebonds of a common religious faith.By one of the strange fortunes of his-tory,this institution,founded in the early days of Christianity,proved to be a potent force in the origin and growth of self-government in a land far away from Galilee."And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul,"we are told in the Acts describing the Church at Jerusalem."We are knit together as a body in a most sacred covenant of the Lord ...by virtue of which we hold ourselves strictly tied to all care of each other's good and of the whole,"wrote John Robinson,a leader among the Pilgrims who founded their tiny colony of Plym-outh in 1620.The Mayflower Com-pact,so famous in American history,was but a written and signed agree-ment,incorporating the spirit of obedience to the common good,which served as a guide to self-government until Plymouth was annexed to Massachusetts in 1691.
Three other colonies,all of which retained their identity until the eve of the American Revolution,likewise sprang directly from the congregations of the faithful:Rhode Island,Connecticut,and New Hampshire,mainly offshoots from Massachusetts.They were founded by small bodies of men and women,"united in solemn covenants with the Lord,"who planted their settlements in the wilderness.Not until many a year after Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson conducted their followers to the Narragansett country was Rhode Island granted a charter of incorporation （1663）by the crown.Not until long after the congregation of Thomas Hooker from Newtown blazed the way into the Connecticut River Valley did the king of England give Connecticut a charter of its own （1662）and a place among the colonies.Half a century elapsed before the towns laid out beyond the Merrimac River by emigrants from Massachusetts were formed into the royal province of New Hampshire in 1679.
Even when Connecticut was chartered,the parchment and sealing wax of the royal lawyers did but confirm rights and habits of self-government and obedience to law previously established by the congregations.The towns of Hartford,Windsor,and Wethersfield had long lived happily under their "Fundamental Orders"drawn up by themselves in 1639;so had the settlers dwelt peacefully at New Haven under their "Fundamental Articles"drafted in the same year.The pioneers on the Connecticut shore had no difficulty in agreeing that "the Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men."
The Proprietor.-A third and very important colonial agency was the pro-prietor,or proprietary.As the name,associated with the word "property,"
implies,the proprietor was a person to whom the king granted property in lands in North America to have,hold,use,and enjoy for his own benefit and profit,with the right to hand the estate down to his heirs in perpetual suc-cession.The proprietor was a rich and powerful person,prepared to furnish or secureWilliam Penn Treating with the Indiansthe capital,collect the ships,
supply the stores,and assemble the settlers necessary to found and sustain a plantation beyond the seas.Sometimes the proprietor worked alone.Some-times two or more were associated like partners in the common undertaking.
Five colonies,Maryland,Pennsylvania,New Jersey,and the Carolinas,owe their formal origins,though not always their first settlements,nor in most cases their prosperity,to the proprietary system.Maryland,established in 1634under a Catholic nobleman,Lord Baltimore,and blessed with religious toleration by the act of 1649,flourished under the mild rule of proprietors until it became a state in the American union.New Jersey,beginning its career under two proprietors,Berkeley and Carteret,in 1664,passed under the direct government of the crown in 1702.Pennsylvania was,in a very large measure,the product of the generous spirit and tireless labors of its first proprietor,the leader of the Friends,William Penn,to whom it was granted in 1681and in whose family it remained until 1776.The two Carolinas were first organized as one colony in 1663under the government and patronage of eight proprietors,including Lord Clarendon;but after more than half a century both became royal provinces governed by the king.
The Colonial Peoples
The English.-In leadership and origin the thirteen colonies,except New York and Delaware,were English.During the early days of all,save these two,the main,if not the sole,current of immigration was from England.The colo-nists came from every walk of life.They were men,women,and children of "all sorts and conditions."The major portion were yeomen,or small land owners,farm laborers,and artisans.With them weremerchants and gentlemen who brought their stocks of goods or their fortunes to the New World.Scholars came from Oxford and Cam-bridge to preach the gospel or to teach.Now and then the son of an English nobleman left his baronial hall behind and cast his lot with America.The people represented every religious faith-members of the Established Church of England;Puritans who had labored to reform that church;Separatists,Baptists,and Friends,who had left it altogether;and Catholics,who clung to the religion of their fathers.
New England was almost purely English.