eld, Seeconck, or Rehoboth, and
Nausett.[27]

At the first arrival the executive and judicial powers were exercised
by John Carver, without any authorized adviser. After his death, in
1621, the same powers were vested in William Bradford as governor and
Isaac Allerton as assistant.[28] In 1624 the number of assistants was
increased to five and in 1633 to seven, and the governor was given a
double voice.[29] The elective and legislative powers were vested in a
primary assembly of all the freemen, called the "General Court," held
at short intervals. One of these meetings was called the court of
elections, and at this were chosen the governor and other officers of
the colony for the ensuing year.

As the number of settlements increased, it became inconvenient for
freemen to attend the general courts in person, and in 1638 the
representative system was definitely introduced. Plymouth was allowed
four delegates, and each of the other towns two, and they, with the
governor and his council of assistants, constituted the law-making
body of the colony. To be entitled to hold office or vote at the court
of elections, the person had to be "a freeman"; and to acquire this
character, he had to be specially chosen one of the company at one of
the general courts. Thus suffrage was regarded as a privilege and not
a right.[30]

Although the first of the colonies to establish a Separatist church,
the Puritans of Plymouth did not make church-membership a condition of
citizenship; still, there can be no doubt that this restriction
practically prevailed at Plymouth, since up to 1643 only about two
hundred and thirty persons acquired the suffrage. In the general laws
of Plymouth, published in 1671, it was provided as a condition of
receiving the franchise that "the candidate should be of sober and
peaceable conversation, orthodox in the fundamentals of religion,"
which was probably only a recognition of the custom of earlier
times.[31] The earliest New England code of statutes was that of
Plymouth, adopted in 1636. It was digested under fifty titles and
recognized seven capital offences, witchcraft being one.[32]

In the Plymouth colony, as in other colonies of New England, the unit
of government was the town, and this town system was borrowed from
Massachusetts, where, as we shall see, the inhabitants of Dorchester
set the example, in 1633, of coming together for governmental
purposes. Entitled to take part in the town-meetings under t