The House of Burgesses was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists 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. Its first meeting was held in Jamestown, Virginia, on July 30, 1619.
The word "Burgess" means an elected or appointed official of a municipality, or the representative of a borough in the English House of Commons.
Read more about House Of Burgesses: Origin; Early Years, Moving Toward Independence, Meeting Places, Legacy
Famous quotes containing the words house of and/or house:
“There are no such oysters, terrapin, or canvas-back ducks as there were in those days; the race is extinct. It is strange how things degenerate.... I passed, the other day, the deserted house of Mrs. Gerry, which I used to think so lordly. It stands alone now amid the surrounding sky-scrapers, and reminds me of Don Quixote going out to fight the windmills. It should always remain to mark the difference between the past and the present.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“Then for the house that is no more a house,
But only a belilaced cellar hole,”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)