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 word house:
“The night in prison was novel and interesting enough.... I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of verses which were composed by some young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)