Colony Founded Founded Reason Importance
Virginia 1607 London Economics/profit First representative
Company assembly – House
of Burgesses
Massachusetts 1620 Pilgrims Seeking religious They wrote the
freedom Mayflower
Compact which
served as the
Constitution
New York 1626 Originally Founded for Was taken over by
(Originally founded as a trade and furs the British in 1664
called New Dutch when Peter
Amsterdam) settlement by Stuyvesant
Dutch West surrendered
India
Company
Maryland 1633 Lord As a refuge for Maryland was a
Baltimore Catholics Proprietary colony
Rhode Island 1636 Roger As a refuge for Williams bought
Williams those seeking the land from the
religious and Indians. Rhode
political freedom Island was a
Corporate colony
Connecticut 1636 Thomas As a refuge for In 1639 the colony
Hooker those driven adopted the
from Fundamental
Massachusetts Orders
Delaware 1638 Originally Trade and furs Sweden established
founded by a colony only to
Dutch settlers lose control to the
who were Dutch in 1655 but
killed by they lost control to
Indians. the British in 1664
New 1638 John As a refuge for Started as a
Hampshire Wheelwright people banished Proprietary colony
from but became a Royal
Massachusetts colony in 1679.
Adopted the Exeter
Compact
North 1653 Virginia As a buffer for The northern
Carolina colonists the other region was called
colonies Albermarle.
Obtained a Royal
charter in 1729
South 1663 Actually the first
Carolina European
settlement was in
South Carolina
New Jersey 1664 Sir George Profit from the Originally a Dutch
Carteret sale of land settlement between
Virginia and New
England
Pennsylvania 1682 William Penn A refuge for Adopted the Frame
Quakers of Government
Georgia 1732 Gen. James As a place for Started out as a
Oglethorpe English debtors Proprietary colony,
and also as a becoming a Royal
buffer between colony in 1752
the English
colonies and the
Spanish in
Florida