<P> A flotilla of ships sailed from England beginning in April 1630, sometimes known as the Winthrop Fleet . The fleet began arriving at Salem in June and carried more than 700 colonists, Governor John Winthrop, and the colonial charter . Winthrop delivered his famous "City upon a Hill" sermon either before or during the voyage . </P> <P> For the next ten years, there was a steady exodus of Puritans from England, with about 20,000 people emigrating to Massachusetts and the neighboring colonies during the Great Migration . Many ministers reacted to the repressive religious policies of England, making the trip with their congregations, among whom were John Cotton, Roger Williams, Thomas Hooker, and others . Religious divisions and the need for additional land prompted a number of new settlements that resulted in Connecticut Colony (by Hooker) and the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (by Williams and others). Minister John Wheelwright was banished in the wake of the Antinomian Controversy (like Anne Hutchinson), and he moved north to found Exeter, New Hampshire . </P> <P> The advent of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 1639 brought a halt to major migration, and a significant number of men returned to England to fight in the war . Massachusetts authorities were sympathetic to the Parliamentary cause and had generally positive relationships with the governments of the English Commonwealth and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell . The colony's economy began to diversify in the 1640s, as the fur trading, lumber, and fishing industries found markets in Europe and the West Indies, and the colony's shipbuilding industry developed . The growth of a generation of people who were born in the colony and the rise of a merchant class began to slowly change the political and cultural landscape of the colony, even though its governance continued to be dominated by relatively conservative Puritans . </P> <P> Colonial support for the Commonwealth created tension after the throne was restored to Charles II in 1660 . Charles sought to extend royal influence over the colonies, which Massachusetts resisted along with the other colonies . For example, the Massachusetts Bay colony repeatedly refused requests by Charles and his agents to allow the Church of England to become established, and the New England colonies in general resisted the Navigation Acts, laws that restricted colonial trade to England alone . </P>

English colonies in north america established a form of blank based on elections