Impeachment in the Thirteen Colonies

Legislative bodies in several of the Thirteen Colonies belonging to England that later formed the original states of the United States held impeachments to remove officeholders and bring other penalties. Impeachment was a process carried over from England. Unlike in modern America but similarly to the practice of impeachment in England, in at least some of the colonies, impeachment was a process that could also be used to try non-officeholders and give criminal penalties.[1] However, in practice, the colonies primarily limited their impeachments to officeholders and punishment to removal from office. Most charges in impeachments were related to misconduct in office.[2] Impeachments in the colonies used a similar bifurcated process to the contemporary English and modern American practice of an impeachment vote followed by an impeachment trial.[1][2] Like both the English impeachment practice and modern United States federal impeachment practice, the charges would be brought by a colonial legislature's lower chamber and tried in its upper chamber.[2]

In England itself, after falling out of fashion by the mid-15th century, impeachment began to be used again by the Parliament of England in the early 17th century.[2] Likewise, in 1635, the Thirteen Colonies saw what has come to be considered its first impeachment action when the Colony of Virginia moved to initiate the removal of its governor, John Harvey.[1]

The American colonies developed their own distinctive processes of impeachment. Colonial impeachments were largely limited to officeholders and misconduct that had been committed in office. Colonial impeachments inspired most of the colonies to include impeachment initial state constitutions. When the United States Constitution was authored to create a federal government, a clause was included allowing for federal impeachments.[3]

## Individuals impeached by colonial governments

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Date  | Government  | Accused  | Office (and other notability)  | Result  | Notes  | Cite

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April 1635  | Colony of Virginia | John Harvey | Governor of Virginia | After the colony voted to initiate a removal, Harvey was effectively suspended and was returned to England to face trial before the House of Lords, however he never faced trial as the House of Lords did not consider the colony to have the authority to initiate such an action  | Removal effort has only retrospectively been considered an impeachment  | [1][4]
1669  | Province of Maryland | John Morecroft | Member of the Assembly of Free Marylanders | Acquitted  |  | [1]
1676  | Province of Maryland | Thomas Trueman | Member of Proprietor's Council and justice of Provincial Court  | Found guilty on May 27, 1676. Removed from office; fined and released.  |  | [1][5]
May 27, 1676  | Province of Maryland | Charles James | Sheriff of Caecill County, Maryland | Found guilty of battery and perjury on June 1, 1676 and removed from office; no criminal penalty given  |  | [1]
1682  | Province of Maryland | Jacob Young | Indian interpreter | Found guilty and removed from office in 1663  |  | [1]
May 15, 1685  | Province of Pennsylvania | Nicholas More | Chief justice of Pennsylvania  | Impeachment never tried  |  | [1]
1706  | Massachusetts Bay Colony | John Borland, Roger Lawson, William Rouse, Samuel Vetch  | No office (merchant captains)  | Found guilty and given criminal sentences; sentences later invalidated by the Privy Council of England |  | [6][7]
1707  | Province of Pennsylvania | James Logan  | Member of the Provincial Council  | Impeachment abandoned for lack of a venue described by law to try the impeachment in (law at the time had allowed for impeachment by the Assembly, but omitted prescription of a venue to try impeachments in)  |  | [6]
April 1719  | Province of South Carolina | Nicholas Trott | Chief justice of South Carolina  | Found guilty and removed  | Some scholars dispute that Trott's trial and removal was formally an impeachment  | [8][9]
1754  | Province of Pennsylvania | William Moore  | Justice of the peace (also a landowner and militia leader)  | Impeachment process halted after Privy Council of England ruled that the Pennsylvania Assembly did not have the authority  |  | [6]
1774  | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Peter Oliver | Chief justice of Massachusetts  | Impeachment process abandoned  |  | [10][11]

## See also

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* Federal impeachment in the United States
* Impeachment by state and territorial governments of the United States
* Impeachment inquiry in the United States

Individual colonies:

* Connecticut Colony
* Delaware Colony
* Province of Georgia
* Massachusetts Bay Colony
* Provence of New Hampshire
* Province of Maryland
* Providence of New Jersey
* Providence of New York
* Province of North Carolina
* Province of Pennsylvania
* Province of South Carolina
* Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
* Colony of Virginia

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hoffer, Peter C.; Hull, N. E. H. (1978). "The First American Impeachments" (PDF). The William and Mary Quarterly. 35 (4): 653–667\. doi:10.2307/1923209. ISSN 0043-5597. JSTOR 1923209. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
2. ^ a b c d "About Impeachment | Historical Overview". www.senate.gov. United States Senate. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
3. ^ Cole, Jared P.; Garvey, Todd (December 6, 2023). "Impeachment and the Constitution". United States Congress. Congressional Research Service/Library of Congress. Retrieved 7 May 2025.
4. ^ "Impeachment in American, 1635-1805". Michigan Law Review. 83 (4). February 1985. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
5. ^ Edward C. Papenfuse (ed.). "Thomas, Truman". A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789. 426: 842 – via msa.maryland.gov (Archives of Maryland Online).
6. ^ a b c Bowman, Frank O. (2019). "3: American Impeachments Before 1787". High crimes and misdemeanors : a history of impeachment for the age of Trump. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108481052.
7. ^ Hoffer, Peter C.; Hull, N. E. H. (1979). "Power and Precedent in the Creation of an American Impeachment Tradition: The Eighteenth-Century Colonial Record". The William and Mary Quarterly. 36 (1): 51–77\. doi:10.2307/1921980. ISSN 0043-5597. JSTOR 1921980. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
8. ^ Fratcher, William F. (Winter 1988). "Independence of the Judiciary under the Constitution of 1787, The". Missouri Law Review. 53 (1). Retrieved 17 January 2023.
9. ^ Douglass, John E. (1993). "Impeaching the Impeachment: The Case of Chief Justice Nicholas Trott of South Carolina". The South Carolina Historical Magazine. 94 (2): 102–116\. ISSN 0038-3082. JSTOR 27569915. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
10. ^ Huhn, Wilson (February 17, 2020). "The Framers' Views on Impeachment". www.jurist.org. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
11. ^ "Founders Online: Editorial Note". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved 28 December 2022.

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