Title: Massachusetts Bay Company | Scholastic
Headings: Massachusetts Bay Company
Massachusetts Bay Company
Content: Massachusetts Bay Company | Scholastic
Massachusetts Bay Company
The Massachusetts Bay Company was a joint stock trading company chartered by the English crown in 1629 to colonize a vast area in New England extending from 3 mi (4.8 km) miles north of the Merrimack River to 3 mi miles south of the Charles River. It was quickly taken over by a group of Puritans, under the leadership of John Winthrop, who wished to establish a religious community in the New World. The first colonists sailed from England in 1630 and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with its center at Boston. They were soon joined by other settlers, almost all Puritans; by 1640, 20,000 of them had settled in Boston and neighboring towns, and the colony was a thriving success. The Puritan leaders had carried the company's charter with them to New England; this action enabled them to govern themselves and meant that they would not be controlled by governors and stockholders in England. Bending the charter to their own purposes, the Puritans transformed the company into a religious commonwealth. Their ambition had been to establish an ideal Christian community — a "city on a hill," as Winthrop called it — with the eyes of England and the entire world on it. Winthrop was reelected governor, and a theocracy was in fact established.