Proprietary colony
A
proprietary colony is a
colony in which one or more private owners retain rights that are normally, and in time always became, the privilege of the state.
The British
kings repeatedly granted territory to one or more individuals, rather than to a
chartered company. These men, called
proprietors, or sometimes "
Lords Proprietors", were invested not only with property under private law but also with
gubernatorial authority to administer it with extraordinary authority, somewhat recalling the
earl palatine before the
Glorious Revolution.
The method was most notably used during the early colonization along the Atlantic coasts of North America and the Caribbean by
Great Britain. Most were run under a charter agreement, which is reviewed by the ruling Monarch. A good example is the
Province of Pennsylvania, granted to
William Penn (the state still bears the name meaning 'woodlands of Penn') by King
Charles II of England.
This type of
indirect rule eventually fell out of favor as the English Sovereigns sought to concentrate their power and authority, and the colonies were converted to
crown colonies, i.e. governed by officials appointed by the King.
Proprietary Colonies in the Caribbean
*
Barbados under Lords Proprietary
**1625 - 1627 Sir
William Courteen**1627 - 1652 Lord Carlisle
Proprietary Colonies in the present Southern US
*
Virginia Colony*
Province of Georgia*
Province of North Carolina*
Province of South CarolinaProprietary Colonies on the northern US east coast
*
Province of Pennsylvania*Proprietors of
Maine: 1622 - December 1635 John Mason (b. 1586 - d. 1635) + Sir Ferdinando Gorges (b. c.1566 - d. 1647; cfr. infra)
**Proprietor of
New Somersetshire, 1635 - 1647: Sir Ferdinando Gorges
*
Province of Maryland - a dynasty of Barons of Baltimore (except the last incumbent) 20 June 1632 - 11 November 1776
*and
New Somersetshire (in present Maine) 1635 - 1647 Sir Ferdinando Gorges (above)
*
Province of New York*
Province of New JerseyProprietary Colonies in present Canada
*Proprietor of
Nova Scotia, 10 September 1621 - 12 June 1632 Sir William Alexander, (from 1633) Earl of Stirling and Viscount of Canada (b. 1567 - d. 1640)
The
Iles Glorieuses, i.e.
Glorioso islands, were on 2 March 1880 settled and named by Frenchman Hippolyte Caltaux (b. 1847 - d. after 1907), who was their proprietor from then till 1891. Only on 23 August 1892 they were claimed for the French "Third Republic", as part of the Indian Ocean colony of
French Madagascar.
However he was again their propietor from 1901 till his death in 1907.
Since 26 June 1960 they became a regular French possession, initially administered by the High Commissioner for
Reunion, on 3 January 2005 transferred to the administrators of the
French Southern and Antarctic Lands.
*
Commonwealth*
Donataria(incomplete)
*
WorldStatesmen- see each present nation, here Canada
