Plymouth was at first governed in primary assembly with a governor and assistants elected by popular vote. As the colony grew and new towns were organized by compact bodies of people detaching themselves from the parent settlement, it became inconvenient for all of the people frequently to assemble in Plymouth. The representative system was adopted in 1638, each township sending two delegates to an administrative body called the General Court, in which the governor and assistants also sat. It was some years later before the General Court was given law-making powers, this privilege being retained by the whole body of freemen. For sixteen years the laws of England were in vogue, but in 1636 a code of simple regulations was adopted, more especially suited to the community. The assistants, with the aid of the jury, tried cases as well as aided the governor in the conduct of public affairs. Purely local matters were managed by primary assemblies in the several towns, and petty cases were tried by town magistrates. Sidenote: Characteristics of Plymouth. Many features of American government and character may be readily traced to the influence of Plymouth. It was the first permanent colony in New England; it had become well established before another was planted, and therefore served in some sense as a model for its successors. It was a community of Independents acting without a charter, working out their own career practically free from royal supervision or veto, and with an elective governor and council. The Plymouth people were closely knit: their struggle for existence had been hard, and it had taught them the value of solidarity; they set the example of a compact religious brotherhood; they were good traders, cultivated peace with the Indian tribes, and advanced their towns only so fast as they needed room for growth and could hold and cultivate the land. In many respects Plymouth may be regarded as a modern American State in embryo. Sidenote: Futile effort to obtain a charter. Three several times (1618, 1676-77, and 1690-91) the colony endeavored, as a measure of self-defence, to obtain a charter from the Crown; but failed in each application,--at first through the influence of the prelates, and afterwards because of the jealousy of its neighbors. Finally, in 1691, Plymouth was incorporated with Massachusetts and lost its identity. 51. Massachusetts founded (1630). Sidenote: Boundary disputes. The Plymouth Company did business in a rather haphazard Way. Land-grants were freely made to all manner of speculators, many of them members of the corporation, with little or no regard to the geography of New England. These grants were dealt out to third parties, often with a lordly indifference to previous patents. The result was that holdings frequently overlapped each other, giving rise to boundary quarrels which lasted through several generations of claimants. Sidenote: Settlement at Cape Ann.