Our English Heritage
Chapter 2 Sec. 1
Section 1 vocabulary
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Monarch
Magna Carta
Legislature
Parliament
Precedents
Common Law
Colony
Charter
• Compact
• Mayflower Compact
Influences from England’s early
government
• When the English arrived in
America, they brought with
them limited and
representative government
• England was ruled by a
monarch, a king or queen.
Nobles held much power
• The nobles forced King John
to sign the Magna Carta,
which means “Great
Charter”
• This document upheld rights
of landowners including
equal treatment under the
law and a trial by one’s
peers. It limited the power
of the king or queen
Influences from England’s early
government
• Nobles and church officials who advised Henry III
developed into a legislature, or lawmaking body.
This would eventually become known as Parliament
• Years later parliament removed James II from the throne,
known as the glorious revolution. From then on, no ruler
would have more power than the legislature.
• Parliament would eventually set up a Bill of Rights.
It granted certain rights to all citizens
• Rights such as free election, free speech, a fair jury, and no
cruel and unusual punishment.
• For a long time England had no written laws. Judges
made rulings based on precedents, rulings in earlier
cases that were similar
• The system of law based on precedent and custom is known
as common law
Parliament
Bringing the English heritage to
America
• A colony is group of people in one place who are
ruled by a parent country elsewhere
• English colonists remained loyal subjects of England for
decades. They accepted common law and expected the
same rights they enjoyed in England
• A charter is a written document granting land and
authority to set up colonial governments
• The Pilgrims drew up the Mayflower Compact, a
written plan that set up a direct democracy in the
Plymouth colony
• A compact is a legal written contract or agreement
Early colonial governments
• English colonies that were set up after
Jamestown and Plymouth followed their
examples and set up similar compacts
• Each colony had a governor and elected
legislature, often modeled after Parliament
• As time passed colonial governments began
to take on more power. The king and
parliament were often preoccupied at home.
So the colonists got used to making their
own decisions
Jamestown