Of the 110 members of the Company in England, only about one fourth ever came to America. Cradock himself never came,--though he had lands and servants here. Most of the members, who stayed in England, lost all their investment eventually. Indeed, in the summer of 1629, the Company was already in serious financial straits. A special inventory, in the fall, rated the stock at only one third the face value. This condition may have inclined some stockholders to favor Cradock's proposition in July. The funds paid in for stock by Winthrop and other new members made it possible for old members to draw out (on this reduced scale). In this sense, the new members "bought" out some of the old ones. 4.--_No place of meeting_ is suggested in the charter. This probably resulted from the fact that the Company was made up partly of Londoners, partly of Dorchester men (from the West of England; cf. _American History and Government_, # 57). All such previous colonizing corporations for America had been designated geographically (probably for convenient descriptions, rather than for limitation). But the "Council of Plymouth in the County of Devon" had never held a meeting at Plymouth: its records show that all its meetings were held at London. This fact may have helped to make the even more composite Massachusetts Company wary about having a place of meeting mentioned in their fundamental law. If John Winthrop is right in his statement of fifteen years later (above) that such a limitation was at first put into this document and that "with much difficulty we got it abscinded," then we may be sure that the Company desired that elision, not in order that they might hold meetings in America (as Winthrop afterward assumed), but to prevent their being hampered in England. This view is made practically certain when we observe the clause regarding place of meeting in the charter of the Providence Isle Company (below). That company certainly never expected to hold its meetings out of England, but it guards against being hampered, not by mere silence, but by express provision that it may meet where it likes.] 54. Docket of the Massachusetts Charter, 1629 When the king granted a charter, an exact copy, known as "the King's Bill," was presented to him, with a _docket_, or abstract, approved by his Attorney-General. This docket was what the king, or his council, read. The following docket, now attached to the King's Bill of this charter in the London Record Office, is printed in the _Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings_ for 1869-1870, pages 172-173. The italics are used in this reproduction to call attention to important matters. May it please your most Excellent Majestie.