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The assembly then moved on to other business but adjourned prematurely due to the extreme heat of early August in the close quarters of the church. At the same time, however, the League did, in fact, make policy as a means toward keeping the peace. The clan chiefs were chosen by the matrons of their clan on the basis of their eloquence and ability to represent the interests of their people. Although members of the tribe did not directly elect their representatives, they trusted the matrons who chose them, and those chosen who did not faithfully represent the interests of their clan were removed and replaced by others. Discussion of policy was encouraged, and debate was integral to any decision on laws, the acceptance of which had to be agreed upon unanimously.
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At the first meeting of the House of Burgesses, 22 men, representing 11 settlements, assembled in Jamestown with Governor Yeardley and his Governor’s Council. Together, they approved legislation related to tobacco prices, servant contracts, and other issues of concern to the colonists. The first meeting lasted for six days and the weather was so hot and humid that two men became ill and one died.
House of Burgesses AP US History (APUSH) Study Guide
The purpose of the House of Burgesses was to work with the Governor and the Governor’s Council to pass laws and make decisions for Virginia. It was a unicameral legislative body until 1643 when Governor Sir William Berkeley allowed the House of Burgesses to meet separately, creating a bicameral legislative system. Robinson’s knowledge of parliamentary procedure and long tenure enabled him, arguably, to wield more political power than any other man of his time. Imperial authorities and a group of burgesses that included Richard Henry Lee felt that allowing one person to occupy these two positions consolidated too much power in a single man’s hands, but were unable to curtail his influence. It was not until after Robinson died that his accounts as treasurer were discovered to be in arrears of more than £100,000—he had been recycling currency earmarked for destruction by lending it to his friends and supporters, many of whom were burgesses themselves.
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(The College of William and Mary also had representation in the House.) Most burgesses were also members of the gentry class, though the colonists they represented were usually small land–owners and tenant farmers. In 1774, when the House of Burgesses began to support resistance to the Crown, Virginia’s royal governor, John Murray, earl of Dunmore, dissolved it. The Virginia Constitution of 1776 created a new General Assembly that replaced the governor’s Council with an elected Senate and the House of Burgesses with an elected House of Delegates. The House of Burgesses is notable, however, for being the training ground of many of America’s Founding Fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry.
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It is important to note the limitations of representation as reflected in the past. From its beginnings in 1619, this first legislative body consisted only of free, white male land owners. In many ways, their legislation reflected the needs and priorities of individuals just like them. Virginia’s House of Burgesses is remembered as the first representative legislative body in English North America, though the importance of representation in government continues to evolve.
In 1624 the Crown revoked the Virginia Company’s charter; Virginia became a royal colony in 1625. The General Assembly continued to convene without any explicit royal authorization—the governor, Council, and burgesses unified by a drive for land and labor. Fearing that a lack of royal sanction might invalidate the laws of the assembly, place land titles under legal question, or even abolish the legislature altogether, the General Assembly sent representatives to England to seek official backing. King Charles I, who had succeeded James I on March 27, 1625, issued no ruling on the matter. The assembly met with its status unclear in 1625 and 1626; in 1627, the assembly received de facto recognition when the king asked the General Assembly to take part in regulating the tobacco trade. When Sir Francis Wyatt returned to Virginia in 1639 for a second term as governor, his commission contained the king’s acknowledgement of the assembly’s right to approve tax increases.
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List of members of the Virginia House of Burgesses
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The French, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions each ended with a rise to power of a leader more autocratic than the pre-revolutionary monarch. This video from Heimler’s History provides an overview of government in Colonial America, including the Virginia House of Burgesses. Virginia Humanities acknowledges the Monacan Nation, the original people of the land and waters of our home in Charlottesville, Virginia. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. Burgess originally referred to a freeman of a borough, a self-governing town or settlement in England.
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The tradition established by the House of Burgesses was extremely important to colonial development. After Lord Dunmore dissolved the Assembly in 1774, the members of the House of Burgesses responded by secretly meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia. Five meetings were held, which are known as the “Virginia Conventions.” The first four conventions dealt with how to plan for the defense of the colony in the event of war, including the establishment of the Committee of Safety. In 1776, the fifth Virginia Convention formally declared the relationship between Virginia and Great Britain “totally dissolved.” Then it directed its delegates to the Second Continental Congress to introduce a resolution for independence — the Lee Resolution. In 1643 Gov. Sir William Berkeley split the House of Burgesses off as a separate chamber of the thereafter bicameral assembly.
Also on This Day in History July 30
In April, 1619, Governor George Yeardley arrived in Virginia from England and announced that the Virginia Company had voted to abolish martial law and create a legislative assembly, known as the General Assembly — the first legislative assembly in the American colonies. Present were Governor Yeardley, Council, and 22 burgesses representing 11 plantations (or settlements) Burgesses were elected representatives. Only white men who owned a specific amount of property were eligible to vote for Burgesses. In 1643, the General Assembly became a bicameral body, establishing the democratically-elected House of Burgesses as its lower house, while the royally-appointed Council of State served as the upper house of the legislature.
The first meeting of the House of Burgesses was held in a church choir in Jamestown on July 30, 1619. Well before the beginning of the eighteenth century the House of Burgesses had developed a set of formal parliamentary procedures and operated with standing committees that assisted, as in the House of Commons, with the flow of business. Veteran members of the House usually chaired the most important of the standing committees, providing leadership and experience for committee work and for legislative deliberations.
Members of the House of Burgesses would play pivotal roles in the War of Independence and the founding of the United States’ government afterwards. The sale of tobacco crops had not only saved Jamestown but made it rich, and this encouraged the arrival of more colonists – whether as landowners or indentured servants – who wanted to make their fortune on the crop as well. The same year that saw the establishment of the House of Burgesses brought the first Africans to the colony, 20 of whom were bought by Sir George Yeardley, making him Virginia’s first slave owner. The House of Burgesses (/ˈbɜːrdʒəsɪz/) was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia.
The Iroquois thereby instituted a unicameral legislative body in North America centuries before the English arrived. Functioned as a simple parliament that passed legislation for the entire colony of Virginia. The Virginia Company appointed a governor and a council as part of the legislature. In 1774, the House of Burgesses ran afoul of the royal-appointed governor John Murray, earl of Dunmore. On May 24 the House passed a resolution designating a Day of Feasting and Prayer in support of the city of Boston. Toward the middle of the 18th century, the House of Burgesses regained some authority as many took up the cry of colonists who felt that their interests were not represented in Parliament in London.
During this period the assembly remained the most powerful organ of government in Virginia. It created counties and parishes, which even Parliament did not do in England; it also adopted formal rules of procedure and established the basis of representation as two members from each county and one from the colonial capital, Jamestown. In 1670 the assembly limited the right to vote for burgesses to adult men who owned land. The assembly continued to meet as a unicameral political body (meaning a single legislative body) whenever called to order until 1642 CE when it was divided into a bicameral body (two separate legislative assemblies) of the House of Burgesses and the Council of State.
Its first law, which, like all of its laws, would have to be approved by the London Company, required tobacco to be sold for at least three shillings per pound. Other laws passed during its first six-day session included prohibitions against gambling, drunkenness and idleness, and a measure that made Sabbath observance mandatory. The House of Burgesses was the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, established in Virginia in 1619. It was composed of two representatives from each of the colony’s 11 districts and was responsible for making laws in the colony, including setting taxes. It was an early form of representative democracy in America, although voting rights were restricted to white, male property owners.
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