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Article: Cambridge Agreement
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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CAMBRIDGE AGREEMENT
CAMBRIDGE AGREEMENT.
In Cambridge, England, on 26 August 1629, twelve Puritan members of the Massachusetts Bay Company led by John Winthrop signed an agreement in which they pledged to emigrate with their families to New England. The signers of the Cambridge Agreement insisted that the company charter be transferred to the New World and that it serve as the new colony's constitution. This was an unprecedented demand since, traditionally, a board in England governed chartered colonies. A few days later, the company's general court passed a motion to transfer the company and the charter to New England, thus making the Massachusetts Bay Company the only English ...