1 gen 1629 anni - 1629 Puritans Flee From England

Descrizione:

1629
In England, years of religious strife between the official Anglican Church and the nonconformist Calvinists who want to “purify” it from within—and therefore are called Puritans—cause John Winthrop and a like-minded group of wealthy Puritans to pool their resources and become shareholders in a royal charter to establish a commercial venture in New England. Many of them are from the town of Boston in Lincolnshire.

Winthrop and the others buy the existing but bankrupt Massachusetts Bay Company, formerly named the New England Company, set up earlier for the purpose of colonizing and reaping benefits from the New World, and approved earlier that year by the King. They purchase it as a joint stock venture, specify that only those who emigrate can own stock in it (thus protecting themselves from meddling outsiders), and sign a compact and charter that later become the framework for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Charters of other similar companies of that time specify that annual Board of Directors meetings must be held in London, subject to scrutiny by the King and Parliament. The Massachusetts Bay Company's charter fails to mention a meeting place - an oversight that Winthrop and the other investors realize can be used to their advantage.

They decide their colony will be self-governing, although they will still be English citizens and subjects of the king.

The Puritans see this as a way to escape persecution in England, to exercise a degree of self-rule, and to create a new community based on their beliefs in predestination, austerity, and eventual heavenly rewards - perhaps not foreseeing that their descendents will persecute, ban, and even execute those with different beliefs.

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