 Plymouth Colony did not have a royal charter authorizing it to form a government , yet some means of governance was needed . The Mayflower Compact was the colony 's first governing document , signed by the 41 able @-@ bodied Separatists aboard the Mayflower upon their arrival in Provincetown Harbor on November 21 , 1620 . Formal laws were not codified until 1636 . The colony 's laws were based on a hybrid of English common law and religious law as laid out in the Bible . The colonial authorities were deeply influenced by Calvinist theology , and were convinced that democracy was the form of government mandated by God . 
