House of Burgesses

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Image:Patrick Henry Rothermel.jpg The House of Burgesses was the name given to the lower house of the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. The name, House of Burgesses, over time came to represent the entire official legislative body of the Colony of Virginia, and later, after the American Revolution, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The Virginia House of Burgesses was formed initially as part of a series of government reforms at Jamestown, established in 1607. Owned by the Virginia Company of London, the colony based at Jamestown had grown to only approximately 1,000 colonists in its first 12 years, so the Virginia Company made changes that the company hoped would make the colony more profitable. The Virginia Company established English Common Law, encouraged private investment from Jamestown settlers which allowed them to own their own land rather than simply being sharecroppers, and created a legislative body similar to the British Parliament that would meet once annually.

Prompted by the Virginia Company, colonial governor Sir George Yeardley helped facilitate elections of representatives, called "burgesses", to this new legislative body that would come from eleven Virginia boroughs adjacent to the James River, along with eleven additional burgesses.

The first meeting of the House of Burgesses occurred on July 30, 1619 at Jamestown. The House of Burgesses became the first elected, non-Native American, representative legislative body in the New World and ultimately became the foundation for self-government in the American Colonies and, eventually, the United States of America.

Governor's Council

The upper house was called the Governor's Council. Members of the first council were:

• Samuel Macock
• John Pory
• Captain Nathaniel Powell
• Captain Francis West
• Reverend William Wickham
• John Pory (designated speaker)
• John Twine (clerk of the General Assembly)
• Thomas Pierce, Sergeant of Arms

Plantations and their representatives were:

• for James City: Ensign William Spense and Captain William Powell
• for Charles City: Samuel Sharpe and Samuel Jordan
• for the City of Henricus: Thomas Dowse and John Plentine
• for Kiccowtan: Captain William Tucker and William Capp
• for Martin-Brandon, Captain John Martin's Plantation: Thomas Davis and Robert Stacy
• for Smythe's Hundred: Captain Thomas Graves and Walter Shelley
• for Martin's Hundred (also known as Wolstenholme): John Boys and John Jackson
• for Argall's Gift: Thomas Pawlett and Edward Gourgainy
• for Flowerdew Hundred: Ensign Edmund Rossingham and John Jefferson
• for Captain Lawne's Plantation: Captain Christophor Lawne and Ensign Washer
• for Captain Warde's Plantation: Captain John Warde and Lieutenant John Gibbes

Elected Representatives

The House of Burgesses made up the other part of the General Assembly. Its members were chosen by all those who could vote in the colony. Each settlement chose two people, or burgesses, to represent it. The Burgesses met to make laws for the colony and set the direction for its future growth. The idea of electing burgesses was important and new. It gave Virginians a chance to control their own government for the first time. At first the burgesses were elected by all free men in the colony; however, women, indentured servants, and Native Americans could not vote. Later the rules for voting changed, making it necessary for men to own at least fifty acres (200,000 m²) of land in order to vote.

Move from Jamestown to Middle Plantation (Williamsburg)

In 1699, the seat of the House of Burgesses was moved to Middle Plantation, soon renamed Williamsburg in honor of King William III of Great Britain. The Burgesses met there in two consecutive Capitol buildings (the first use of the word in the English Colonies) until December 1779, when they moved to the new capital at Richmond. The present Capitol at Colonial Williamsburg reproduces the earlier of the two lost buildings.

Governor Norborne Berkeley Baron de Botetourt dissolved the House of Burgesses in 1769. The Assembly continued to meet anyway, and became the Virginia House of Delegates in 1776, forming the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative branch of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

References

• Hatch, Charles E., Jr., (1956 rev). America's Oldest Legislative Assembly & Its Jamestown Statehouses, Appendix II. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.