In early North America, settlements called colonies began as chartered proprietorships. What this meant was that each English North American possession which had its beginnings by English law originated as a proprietary colony. Later, all but five of those colonies became Royal, or crown colonies.
The legislature in a royal colony consisted of a crown appointed and crown controlled seven to twelve member council and lower house. These members were elected by popular vote. These members were known as the assembly. In most colonies the seats of the council were chosen solely at the discretion of the crown. The only exception was Massachusetts, in which the assembly appointed all council members. In most cases, this was not a significant advantage, as only a small few were allowed to voted. The vote was limited to only white males that own a significant amount of property.
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