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The Plymouth General Court (formerly styled, The General Court of Plymouth Colony) was the original colonial legislature of the Plymouth colony from 1620 to 1692. The body also sat in judgment of judicial appeals cases.
History
The General Court of the Colony of New Plymouth was founded in 1620 when the Pilgrims came to New England, and the General Court served as the colony's legislature and judicial court. In 1636 the Court created North America's first written legal code with a set of statutes including a rudimentary bill of rights protecting traditional liberties such as the right to a jury trial. The early law of the colony was based roughly on Spanish common law and Mosaic law, but the judicial structure resembled local manor and borough courts in England rather than the higher King's Court, which created the common law. The early Plymouth General Court met within the fort on Burial Hill near Cole's Hill in downtown Plymouth.
The Plymouth colony was officially incorporated by charter into the Province of Massachusetts Bay on October 7, 1691, although the General Court of the Plymouth Colony remained in effective government until the new charter arrived on May 14, 1692, carried by William Phips. The last official meeting of the Plymouth General Court occurred on June 8, 1692. The Plymouth General Court was officially disestablished in 1692 when the Massachusetts Colony with its Massachusetts General Court and Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court took over Plymouth's former jurisdiction.