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The Virginia House of Burgesses was the first legislative assembly of elected representatives in North America. The House was established by the Virginia Company, who created the body as part of an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America and to make conditions in the colony more agreeable for its current inhabitants. From 1619 to 1776, the legislature of Virginia was the House of Burgesses, which governed in conjunction with a colonial governor. Jamestown remained the capital of the Virginia colony until 1699; from 1699 until its dissolution the capital was in Williamsburg. The word "Burgess" means an elected or appointed official of a municipality, or the representative of a borough in the English House of Commons. ==Early years== The Colony of Virginia was founded by an English stock company, the Virginia Company, as a private venture, though under a royal charter. Early governors provided the stern leadership and harsh judgments required for the colony to survive its early difficulties. As early crises with famine, disease, Indian attacks, the need to establish a cash crop and insufficient skilled or committed labor subsided, the colony needed to attract enough new and responsible settlers if it was to grow and prosper. To encourage settlers to come to Virginia, in 1618-1619, the Virginia Company's leaders drew up a great charter.〔 〕 Emigrants who paid their own way to Virginia would receive fifty acres of land. They would not be mere tenants. Civil authority would control the military. A council of burgesses, representatives chosen by the inhabitants of the colony for their government, would be convened as the House of Burgesses. The governor could veto their actions and the company still had overall control of the venture, but the settlers would have a say in their own government, including the right of the House of Burgesses to introduce money bills.〔Rubin, Jr. Louis D. ''Virginia: A History''.New York W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1977. ISBN 0-393-05630-9. pp. 3–27.〕 A handful of Polish craftsmen, brought to the colony to supply skill in the manufacture of pitch, tar, potash, and soap ash, were initially denied the political rights of English settlers. They downed tools in protest, but returned to work after being declared free (probably in the sense of civil liberty) and enfranchised, apparently by agreement with the Virginia Company. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「House of Burgesses」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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