ment whatever. With the English the corporate town life began before or immediately after settlement. In the same way the communal ownership of lands and common interest in religious worship date, in the English towns, from the time of settlement, while in the Dutch towns they developed long after the original settlement.
Further, the charters of the English towns differed from the ordinances which established local government in the Dutch settlements in several important particulars. The English charters were granted to companies of individuals who had usually formed an agreement before their settlement, while the Dutch settlers were often forced into an agreement, and compelled to take up lands in common,[1] at the dictation of the Director and against their own will. The English charters gave the settlers power to form "a bodye politique and ciuill combination,"[2] to which they, and their associates, heirs and successors were to belong. In the case of Gravesend, the power was also given "to make such civill ordinances as the Maior part of the Inhabitants free of the Towne shall thinke fitting for theyr quiett and peaceable subsisting," thus recognizing the town-meeting as an integral part of the local government.
The local officials provided for by these charters were called by varying names — magistrates, "some of theirs," schepens — but their duties corresponded to the judicial duties of the officers of the Dutch local court. All the charters required the officers to be named to the Director and Council for confirmation. No direct mention is made of a double nominating system, such as was given to the Dutch towns, but by subsequent practice three of the towns always presented double nominations to the Director and Council; while Gravesend alone was permitted the privilege of presenting a single number of candidates.[3] We have seen that the candidates in the Dutch towns were selected by the outgoing magistrates. In the English charters, the patentees, their associates and successors are given that power; thus vesting the election of officers in the people.[4]
In addition to the features in which the English town charters differed from the Dutch, there were of course points of similarity.
- ↑ This was true at Cummunipaw, at Wiltwyck on the upper Hudson, and was attempted without success among the conquered Swedes on the Schuylkill at Passayung.
- ↑ Gravesend charter in Documentary History of New York, I. 629-632. Similar provision in Hempstead charter; Thompson, History of Long Island, second ed., II 4-6.
- ↑ This extraordinary feature was carried out in practice; see N. Y. Col. Doc., XIV 130, 329, 343, 422, etc.
- ↑ True of the first charter granted to an English town, Mespath, in 1642 (four years before a Dutch town received local government). N. Y. Col. Doc., XIV. 38. See the other charters as well.
