33, 1636, 1644;

4. Thomas Prince, 1634, 1638, 1657 to 1672;

5. Josiah Winslow, 1673 to 1680;

6. Thomas Hinckley, 1681 to 1692;[12]

when the colony of Plymouth[13] (which had never increased in population
beyond 13,000) was incorporated with that of Massachusetts Bay, under
the name of the Province of Massachusetts, by Royal Charter under
William and Mary, and by which religious liberty and the elective
franchise were secured to all freeholders of forty shillings per annum,
instead of being confined to members of the Congregational Churches, as
had been the case down to that period under the Puritans of
Massachusetts Bay--so that equal civil and religious liberty among all
classes was established in Massachusetts, not by the Puritans, but by
Royal Charter, against the practice of the Puritans from 1631 to 1692.

The government of the Pilgrims was of the most simple kind. At first the
Governor, with one assistant, was elected annually by general suffrage;
but in 1624, at the request of Governor Bradford, a Council of five
assistants (increased to seven in 1633) was annually elected. In this
Court, or Executive Council, the Governor had a double vote. In the
third year, 1623, trial by jury was established. During eighteen years,
from 1620 to 1638, the legislative body, called the General Court, or
Court of Associates, was composed of the whole body of freemen. It was
not until 1639 that they established a House of Representatives. The
qualifications of a _freeman_ were, that he "should be twenty-one years
of age, of sober, peaceable conversation, orthodox in religion [which
included belief in God and the Holy Scriptures, but did not include any
form of Church government], and possess rateable estate to the value of
twenty pounds."

In 1636--sixteen years after their landing at New Plymouth--the laws
which they had enacted were first collected, prefaced by a declaration
of their right to enact them, in the absence of a Royal Charter. Their
laws were at various times revised and added to, and finally printed in
1671, under the title of "Their Great Fundamentals." They recognized the
general laws of England, and adopted local statutes or regulations
according to what they considered their needs.[14] Of their sense of
duty as British subjects, and of the uniform mutual relations of
friendship existing between them and their Sovereigns, their records and
history furnish abundant proofs. The oath required of their Gove