Plymouth vs Virginia Land Title and Decentralization
Attempts that always led back to property ownership - business strategy
Preamble
Everyone was born a native to their state if born in one of the American States of the Union. We are not Federal U.S. citizens at birth. If not a native to our country, and having first made the decision to be Naturalized as a United States citizen, a man or woman may choose a permanent domicile within one of the States of Union after one year and one day in an established residency without a felony record and if that individual man or woman does not accept Public Assistance. As these articles progress, the differentiation will be clarified. i encourage all to stick around and learn the difference if not yet known to you.
The question becomes how did we get here and how do we restore our original American government? These questions will be part of the path of discovery as we discuss the history of America (good and bad) and the true intentions of the Declarations and Constitutions.
Please take the time to click through the links (underlined topics) and get the more detailed pieces as your time permits. i recommend individuals do not take my word for the general history, but take the time to research on your own as well. Articles will be a bit shorter going forward to allow the time to seek and digest some of the related and underlying information.
Picking up where we left off in the February 1st article…
Puritan and New England Lessons
In the last article, the settlers (Puritan Separatist Pilgrims and the Ships Crew) on the Mayflower missed their target of northern Virginia (en route to Hudson River Bay) and landed in Cape Cod, then sailed to Plymouth. They were originally to be granted land at the mouth of the Hudson in current NY after landing in Virginia. The patent land ownership was modeled after the Virginia land indenture owing 7 years of shared production for total freehold Allodial title to the land they improved. However, due to the dire circumstances surrounding their journey, and landing in Cape Cod, the Mayflower Compact was written as an initial declaration of unity, governance, and legal instrument.
February 1, 2023 - America Settlers, Land Ownership, and Puritan Influence on Law Common to i
It appears in the piecing together of the account of Plymouth, the agents under Governor Bradford who helped the Puritans in Holland acquire passage to America, had arranged a different company structure under a joint-venture stock company as compared to the Virginia Company and London Company arrangement applied in the settlement of Virginia. The pilgrims were counting on the Virginia land grant method and the freedom to practice their biblical text-based evangelical faith. This joint-venture stock company was initially set up as a “common storehouse” system. The new location in Cape Cod (then Plymouth) away from their targeted landing, and the requirement for new land patents from England to be issued for Plymouth, gave the agents leverage. The pilgrims initially gave in to the different company arrangement for the first couple of years. This forced the land agricultural production to be paid to the company as shared interest and then to the crown in England. This was not the deal the pilgrims left Holland to pursue.
Black’s Law Dictionary 4th Edition:
COMPANY. A society or association of persons, in considerable number, interested in a common object, and uniting themselves for the prosecution usually of some commercial or industrial undertaking, or other legitimate business. Mills v. State, 23 Tex. 303; Smith v. Janesville, 52 Wis. 680, 9 N.W. 789.
A number of persons united for performing or carrying on anything jointly. In re Tidewater Coal Exchange, C.C.A.N.Y., 280 F. 638, 643.
"Company" is a generic and comprehensive word, which may include individuals, partnerships, and corporations. Asbury v. Town of Albemarle, 162 N.C. 247, 78 S.E. 146, 148, 44 L.R.A.,N.S., 1189; Ellerson v. Grove, C.C.A.N.C., 44 F.2d 493, 497. But not a municipality. City of Los Angeles, Cal., v. Eighth Judicial District Court, 58 Nev. 1, 67 P.2d 1019, 1023.
The word is sometimes applicable to a single individual. Harger v. Harger, 144 Ark. 375, 222 S.W. 736, 739. But compare Wood v. Wood, 78 Or. 181, 151 P. 969, 970, L.R.A. 1916C, 251, Ann.Cas.1918A, 226.
Joint Stock Company: An association of individuals for purposes of profit, possessing a common capital contributed by the members composing it, such capital being commonly divided into shares of which each member possesses one or more, and which are transferable by the owner. Shelf. Jt. St. Co. 1. One having a joint stock or capital, which is divided into numerous transferable shares, or consists of transferable stock. Lindl. Partn. 6. A partnership whereof the capital is divided, or agreed to be divided, into shares so as to be transferable without the express consent of the co-partners. Pars. Part. § 435. A quasi partnership, invested by statutes in England and many of the states with some of the privileges of a corporation. See Pennsylvania v. Mining Co., 10 Wall. 556, 19 L. Ed. 998; L.R. 4 Eq. 695. It lies midway between a corporation and a copartnership. Rocky Mountain Stud Farm Co. v. Lunt, 46 Utah, 299, 151 P. 521, 527.
What quickly (within two seasons) was evident, is the “common storehouse” system was not working. Some people put in more work than others which caused further division in the company arrangement. After petitioning the Governor, the land ownership arrangement went partially back to the original plan, and the pilgrim’s families were granted land to improve. More details of the account can be found here. The key is that the pilgrims eventually bought out the shares of the company and owned their land outright by 1642.
When this initial purchase occurred in 1627, the Governor had each family create a private company in order to divide up the assets of the failed common-stores company. This was the example of private, unincorporated, family companies that facilitated trade with other families and the town. In some instances, as towns in New England grew, the town itself became incorporated. This incorporation was a model of the British/Roman system and was registered. All this was new to the settlers, and was a development through trial and error. This was occurring in a decentralized format throughout the American colonies. The common end result of the trial and error was individual family land/property ownership to optimize output and a way to transfer some wealth back to England and entice more colonization to the Americas; and hence, generate more commerce opportunities for the empire, the wealthy proprietors, and company owners.
Black’s Law Dictionary 4th Edition:
PRIVATE. Affecting or belonging to private individuals, as distinct from the public generally. Not official; not clothed with office. People v. Powell, 280 Mich. 699, 274 N.W. 372, 373, 111 A.L.R. 721.
Another important aspect the settlers acknowledged was the “separation” of church and state in the sense that priests and ordained ministers could not hold office in most of New England towns. This was to keep the problems experienced in England with the clergy control of politics and money from seeping into the communities in America, and the protection of the ability to practice religion freely. Instead, the community, often guided by the moral belief system of the old testament (Common Law) and supported by the ministers, made the decisions for what was, and was not acceptable. This mirrored the ten-tithing shire justice system even if they were not aware of this similarity. This separation had absolutely nothing to do with removal of the Creator or the Common Law tenants.
The main lesson was the model of socialized common-stores, corporate land, centralization of power, and forced production share did not work. Common land, stores, etc… all failed and caused more legislative issues than they fixed. The real issue was the availability of land close enough to town for trade. As more settlers arrived, the push outward increased, and the dividing of land became a business. More lands were cleared, stone walls were built dividing the farming plots from the rocky landscape, and New England became a farming and agricultural land of rolling hills. When private land was the answer, a type of capitalism thrived and the community and the people benefited. The English commons system was part of what people tried to escape. Yet this was still pushed for decades by those unwilling to change such as proprietors/Governors/company charters/royal province control. Those slow-to-change loyalists to the crown took a longer period to appreciate the success achieved with sovereign land ownership. This is a history not acknowledged by our current politicians and leaders pushing for socialism.
America thrived on decentralization. This was the successful answer to overbearing politics in towns. The same issue we see today in communication, business, censorship, and politics is overt centralization. The answer today is decentralization just like the latter part of the 17th century and back to the 6th-9th centuries with shires, and all the way back to Israel and the initial rejection of kings and centralized power. The playbook by those wanting power are the same, and answers to dispel that unwanted power are the same. Decentralization and a firm faith in the Creator and moral standards under Common Law (Old Testament virtues) are as true today, as it was true over the known history, and is always part of the solution. Once we forget history, we forget all the failed attempts of our ancestors and the playbook of the power hungry. Personal accountability and responsibility is how we express our law to others. More on this to come…
Property: Anything exclusive to i from all others in a society. The highest right a man or woman has. By taking claim to something not claimed by another, the elevation is property. The unlawful taking of property by another is trespass by way of theft.
Next Article
In the next article, we will cover some of the hard realities of the occupation of America and the struggle for sovereignty. This topic will be recurring as we go through the creation of the American government and the Constitutions as written (not interpreted out of convenience).
We will then explore the pre-revolutionary timeline and the escalation that brought about the Continental Congress as well as the series of various declarations.
We are working up to the clarity of Common Law, the word magic employed by the legal society, and the tools each man or woman can use based on Law of mankind. I hope everyone will tag along for the journey.