whoe shall bee from tyme to tyme thereunto Elected or Deputed by the major parte of the freemen of the respective Townes ... shall have a generall meeting or Assembly, then and their to Consult and advise in and about the Affaires and businesse of the said Company; And that the Governour, or ... Deputy Governour ..., and such of the Assistants and freemen of the said Company as shall be soe Elected or Deputed and bee present att such meeting or Assembly, or the greatest number of them (whereof the Governour or Deputy Governour and Six of the Assistants, at least, to bee Seaven) shall be called the =_Generall Assembly, and shall have full power and authority to alter and change their dayes and tymes of meeting or General Assemblies for Electing the Governour Deputy Governour and Assistants or other Officers, or any other Courts, Assemblies or meetings, and to Choose, Nominate and appoint such and soe many other Persons as they shall thinke fitt and shall bee willing to accept the same, to bee free of the said Company and Body Politique, and them into the same to Admitt and to Elect, and Constitute such Officers as they shall thinke fitt and requisite for the Ordering, mannageing, and disposeing of the Affaires of the said Governour and Company and their Successors_. And wee doe hereby ... _Establish and Ordeine, that once in the yeare ..., namely, the said Second Thursday in May, the Governour, Deputy Governour and Assistants of the said Company and other Officers of the said Company, or such of them as the said Generall Assembly shall thinke fitt, shall bee, in the said Generall Court and Assembly to bee held from that day or tyme, newly Chosen for the yeare ensuing, by such greater part of the said Company for the tyme being then and there present_. ... And wee doe further= ... Graunt that it ... shall ... bee lawfull [for any General Assembly,] to Erect and make ... Judicatories for the heareing and Determining of all Actions ... =_And alsoe from tyme to tyme to Make, Ordaine, and Establish All mannner of wholesome and reasonable Lawes, Satutes, Ordinances ... and Instructions, not contrary to the lawes of this Realme of England ... which they shall find needfull for the Government ... of the said Colony_=. ... =And Knowe yee further=, That Wee ... Doe give, Graunt and Confirme unto the said Governor and Company and their Successors, All that parte of our Dominions in New England in America bounded on the East by Norrogancett River, comonly called Norrogancett Bay, where the said River falleth into the Sea, and on the North by the lyne of the Massachusetts Plantation, and on the South by the Sea, and in longitude as the lyne of the Massachusetts Colony, runinge from East to West, (that is to say,) from the said Norrogancett Bay on the East to the South Sea on the West.... 98. The Rhode Island Charter July 8/18, 1663 _Rhode Island Colonial Records_, II, 3-20.