.

Massachusetts Archives

CHC

Records [Massachusetts Court of Assistants]

Part of: Massachusetts Court of Assistants

Records, 1629-1692.

For current extent consult index database
Call no.: JU1/2044X

Scope and Content: Assistants, also designated judicially in their own towns as magistrate, with powers of justice of the peace, were chosen annually by the General Court of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, the colony chartered by the English Crown in 1629.  They met separately from the General Court as a whole (i.e., including its freemen–or, from 1634, their elected deputies), constituting with the governor and deputy governor a Court of Assistants.  In 1634 this body’s legislative powers were ceded to the General Court as a whole (Mass Recs 1: 117).  From 1636 certain members were appointed as members for life of a standing council to the governor (see: Massachusetts. Council. Agency history record). By 1644, while assistants continued to meet separately–now concurrently with a House of Deputies, thus in effect being the upper house of the General Court–the designation of Court of Assistants was reserved for the assistants acting solely in their judicial capacity, this body continuing until the institution of the Dominion of New England in 1686 and then again with the 1689 revival of colonial government until institution of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in 1692.
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Search collections

Collection categories

Browse collections

information