Our English Heritage

C & E

EQs

• What were the English traditions of limited and self gov’t?

• How did colonists transplant English ideas of gov’t to America?

Key Terms

• Monarch• Parliament• Precedent• Common law• Colony• Charter• Compact• Salutary Neglect

Key Concepts

• Colonial traditions of self gov’t

John Dickinson

Influences from England’s Early Gov’t

• We can trace our pol. & legal traditions back to England

• History of limited & representative gov’t

• England had a monarch– King or queen

Magna Carta• 1199 - King John treated

people & nobles poorly• Nobles rebelled in 1215• King John forced to sign

Magna Carta (“Great Charter”)• Protected nobles privileges• Granted certain rights to all

landholders• Equal treatment under the law• Trial by one’s peers• Limited power of the monarch

Parliament• Legislature

– Lawmaking body

• Est. in late 1300s

• Removed King James II & put his daughter (+her husband) on throne– Glorious Rev.

– William & Mary

• 1689 – English Bill of Rights– Monarch must have Parliament’s

consent

– Freely elected members

– Free speech during meetings

– Fair trials by jury

– Banned cruel & unusual punishments

Common Law

• Based on precedent– Ruling in an earlier

case– Judge must make a

consistent ruling

• Common law based on customs & precedents

• Laws about property, contracts, & personal injury

Bringing the English Heritage to America

• Colony– Grp of people in one

place who are ruled by a parent country elsewhere

House of Burgesses

• 1608 - Eng. Est. 1st colony @Jamestown, VA – Chartered by king

– Virginia Company

• 1st representative assembly in America– House of Burgesses

– Beginning of self-gov’t

Mayflower Compact

• 1620 – Separatists came to Massachusetts– Pilgrims– Came on the Mayflower– Settled Plymouth Colony

• Written plan of gov’t – Mayflower Compact– Agreement among a grp on

how to govern– Set up direct democracy– Led to town meetings

Early Colonial Gov’ts

• By 1733– 13 colonies from Mass to

GA

• Each had legislature & governor

• Americans grew used to mak’g own decisions

• Salutary Neglect– Parliament worried about

stuff in England and let colonies do as they pleased