Virginia House of Burgesses

Timeline

1. 1618–1619Jamestown church · JamestownThe company's Great Charter ended military rule and authorized the governor to convene an assembly of elected burgesses. Yeardley convened it in the Jamestown church on July 30, 1619; twenty-two delegates sat with the governor and council, confirming land titles, regulating the tobacco trade, and establishing the status of the Church of England, setting a precedent for elected legislatures in British overseas colonies.
2. 1624–1642Jamestown, Virginia royal colony · JamestownIn 1624 James I revoked the company's charter and Virginia became a royal colony, but the colonial assembly was not abolished. The governor and council remained royal appointees, and elected burgesses continued legislating on taxation, defense, and tobacco regulation, fixing the representative custom as part of royal colonial governance after the company system ended.
3. 1643Jamestown, Virginia colony · JamestownGovernor William Berkeley separated the elected burgesses from the appointed council, making the House of Burgesses the lower house of a bicameral system, holding the initiative on appropriations and legislation, while the council exercised amendment and veto and also served as the supreme court. This structure imitated the division of labor between the English House of Commons and House of Lords and was used thereafter until independence.
4. 1699–1776Williamsburg, Virginia colony · WilliamsburgFrom around 1699 the assembly moved with the capital to the middle plantations (Williamsburg). Washington, Jefferson, and Patrick Henry all served as burgesses. During the Revolution the House of Burgesses ended, its functions passing to the Virginia House of Delegates, and its custom that 'taxation requires an elected assembly' became an important source of American state constitutional and federal constitutional discourse.