The Massachusetts Charter, 1629% .-- The next step was to obtain the right of self-government, which was secured by a royal charter creating a corporation known as the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England.

Over the affairs of the company were to preside a governor, deputy governor, and a council of eighteen to be elected annually by the members of the company.[2] [Footnote 2: The charter is printed in Poore's _Charters and Constitutions_, pp.

932-942, and in Preston's _Documents_, pp.

36-61.] Six ships were now fitted out, and in them 406 men, women, and children, with 140 head of cattle, set sail for Massachusetts.

They reached Salem in safety and made it the largest colony in New England.
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