Upon the 20th of April, 1662, his Majesty granted the colony his letters patent, conveying the most ample privileges, under the great seal of England. It confirmed unto it the whole tract of country granted by King Charles I. to the Earl of Warwick, and which was the next year by him consigned to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook, and others. The patent granted the lands in fee and common socage. The facts stated and pleaded in the petition were recognized in the Charter, nearly in the same form of words, as reasons for the royal grant, and of the ample privileges it conveyed. It ordained that John Winthrop, John Mason, Samuel Wyllys, Henry Clark, Matthew Allen, John Tapping, Nathan Gould, Richard Treat, Richard Lord, Henry Wolcott, John Talcott, Daniel Clark, John Ogden, Thomas Welles, Obadiah Brune, John Clark, Anthony Hawkins, John Deming, and Matthew Camfield, and all such others as there were, or should afterward be, admitted and made free of the corporation, should forever after be one body corporate and politic, in fact and name, by the name of the Governor and Company of the English Colony of Connecticut, in New England, in America; and that, by the same name, they and their successors should have perpetual succession. They were capacitated, as persons in law, to plead and be impleaded, to defend and be defended, in all suits whatsoever; to purchase, possess, lease, grant, demise, and sell lands, tenements, and goods, in as ample a manner as any of his Majesty’s subjects or corporations in England. The Charter ordained that there should be, annually, two General Assemblies; one holden on the second Thursday in May, and the other on the second Thursday in October. This was to consist of the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and twelve assistants, with two deputies from every town or city. John Winthrop was appointed Governor, and John Mason Deputy-Governor, and the gentlemen named above, magistrates, until a new election should be made.--ED. NOTE. [24] Before the session of the General Assembly of Connecticut, in October, the Charter was brought over; and, as the Governors and magistrates appointed by his Majesty were not authorized to serve after this time, a general election was appointed on the 9th of October. John Winthrop, Esq., was chosen Governor, and John Mason, Esq., Deputy-Governor; the magistrates were those mentioned in the patent, and were appointed by his Majesty, with Mr. Baker and Mr. Sherman; and John Talcott, Esq., was Treasurer, and Daniel Clark, Esq., Secretary.