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Join 51,000+ happy teachers and students who use our teaching worksheets and resources every day. By clicking "Sign Up", you are accepting Dictionary.com Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policies. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'House of Burgesses.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. But starting with the Virginia General Assembly, Americans had 157 years to practice democracy. King James I, a believer in the divine right of monarchs, attempted to dissolve the assembly, but the Virginians would have none of it.
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This created a two-system (bicameral) legislature for the first time in Virginia’s history. In 1713 Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood pushed through the assembly a law to require in every county the construction of a public tobacco warehouse where inspectors would grade all tobacco before export. The objective was to increase the quality of exported tobacco and thereby increase the price that English merchants paid Virginia planters.
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It seems that by November 1757, some already knew Washington’s intentions to run in Frederick County.4 This time, despite still not in the area, Washington had friends campaign for him. He also supplied drinks for those voting, which was a rather common occurrence during 18th-century elections. During his tenure, Washington was not an outspoken burgess, nor did he introduce expansive or innovative legislation. Meeting in Williamsburg with elder statesmen such as John Robinson, Peyton Randolph, and George Wythe, as well as newer burgesses such as George Mason, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson, Washington learned to navigate political spheres and began his lessons in statecraft. Which done he read unto them the commission for establishing the Counsell of Estate and the general Assembly, wherein their duties were described to the life ... And forasmuch as our intente is to establish one equall and uniforme kinde of government over all Virginia &c.
Henricus Colony of Virginia
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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. The burgesses adopted resolutions against the Stamp Act and protested the unprecedented taxes by petitioning both houses of Parliament and the king, becoming the defenders of the people of Virginia in the process.
In the 1715 election the voters in many counties, fearing that the lieutenant governor was gaining too much influence with representatives dependent on him for their income, defeated many of those burgesses. The new members of the House passed a bill to repeal the law, but Spotswood killed the bill. Two years later Virginia planters succeeded in having the king veto the original law. The General Assembly then passed a law requiring that if the governor or lieutenant governor appointed any burgess to the office of sheriff or any other office of profit, the burgess had to resign from the House.
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The House of Burgesses was dissolved on May 24, 1774, by the Royal Governor John Murray, Earl of Dunmore. Following the passage of the Intolerable Acts, the Burgesses passed a resolution for a Day of Feasting and Prayer in support of the city of Boston. The House of Burgesses met for the first time on July 30, 1619, in the wooden church at Jamestown.
The Iroquois thereby instituted a unicameral legislative body in North America centuries before the English arrived. In May 1774, after Parliament closed Boston Harbor as punishment for the Boston Tea Party and the House of Burgesses adopted resolutions in support of the Boston colonists, Virginia’s royal governor, John Murray, earl of Dunmore, dissolved the assembly. The burgesses then reassembled on their own and issued the calls for the first of five Virginia Conventions. These conventions were essentially meetings of the House of Burgesses without the governor and Council. They paved the way for the First Continental Congress and, more broadly, for the revolution in Virginia, creating an army and, in June 1776, adopting a new constitution for the independent Commonwealth of Virginia.
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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. Many of the Founding Fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry, were members of the House of Burgesses and instrumental in establishing its successor, the General Assembly, comprised of a Senate and a House of Delegates in 1776 CE. A number of scholars in the modern era have argued for the claim that the House of Burgesses, which informed the creation of the United States government, was directly influenced by Native American forms of government, but this claim is consistently challenged.
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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. It was the first elected representative government in Colonial America and served as a model for other colonies in establishing their own representative assemblies. It also provided a means for Virginia colonists to have a voice in their own governance.
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.
The first meeting of the Virginia General Assembly in 1619 established the House of Burgesses in Virginia. Meeting in the wooden church at Jamestown, the General Assembly followed orders derived from the Virginia Company’s “Great Charter” of 1618. The new charter was a necessary next step in the government and regulation of the Virginia colony. The House of Burgesses was the first elected representative assembly in Colonial America. It was established in 1619 by the Virginia Company and consisted of elected representatives from the towns and plantations in Virginia. 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.
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. The twenty-two men met from July 30 to August 4 in unicameral session with Yeardley, the six-man governor’s Council, and the secretary and treasurer of the colony. Earlier that year, the London Company, which had established the Jamestown settlement 12 years before, directed Virginia Governor Sir George Yeardley to summon a “General Assembly” elected by the settlers, with every free adult male voting. Twenty-two representatives from the 11 Jamestown boroughs were chosen, and Master John Pory was appointed the assembly’s speaker.
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