Province of Massachusetts

Province of Massachusetts Bay
Colony of England (1692–1707) Colony of Great Britain (1707–76)
1692–1776
Flag
A map depicting the colonial claims related to the province
Capital		Boston
Languages		English, Massachusett, Mi'kmaq
Political structure		Colony of England (1692–1707) Colony of Great Britain (1707–76)
Monarch
•	1691–1694	William and Mary
•	1760–1776	George III
Royal Governor
•	1692–1694	Sir William Phips
•	1694–1774	full list
•	1774–1775	Thomas Gage
Legislature		General Court
History
•	Charter issued	1691
•	Arrival of Governor Sir William Phips	1692
•	Provincial Congress established	October 1774
•	Massachusetts Declaration of Independence	May 1, 1776
•	Adoption of the Massachusetts Constitution	October 1779
•	Treaty of Paris	1783
Currency		Pound sterling, Spanish dollar
Preceded by Succeeded by Plymouth Colony Massachusetts Bay Colony Province of Maine Massachusetts Nova Scotia
Today part of		Canada  United States

The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a crown colony in British North America and one of the thirteen original states of the United States from 1776. It was chartered on October 7, 1691 by William and Mary, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The charter took effect on May 14, 1692, and included the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Plymouth Colony, the Province of Maine, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The modern Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the direct successor. Maine has been a separate U.S. state since 1820, and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are now Canadian provinces, having been part of the colony only until 1697.

The name Massachusetts comes from the Massachusett Indians, an Algonquian tribe. The name has been translated as "at the great hill", "at the place of large hills", or "at the range of hills", with reference to the Blue Hills and to Great Blue Hill in particular.

Colonial settlement of the shores of Massachusetts Bay began in 1620 with the founding of the Plymouth Colony. Other attempts at colonization took place throughout the 1620s, but expansion of English settlements only began on a large scale with the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628 and the arrival of the first large group of Puritan settlers in 1630. Over the next ten years, there was a major migration of Puritans to the area, leading to the founding of a number of new colonies in New England. By the 1680s, the number of New England colonies had stabilized at five; the Connecticut Colony, the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and the Province of New Hampshire all bordered the area surrounding Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth. Massachusetts Bay, however, was the most populous and economically significant, housing a sizable merchant fleet.