Crown colony

A Crown Colony, also known in the 17th century as royal colony, was a type of colonial administration of the English and later British Empire.

Crown, or royal, colonies were ruled by a governor appointed by the Monarch. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Sovereign appointed royal governors on the advice of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Under the name of "royal colony", the first of what would later become known as Crown colonies was the English Colony of Virginia in the present-day United States, after the Crown, in 1624, revoked the Royal Charter it had granted to the Virginia Company, taking over direct administration.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, the term "Crown Colony" was primarily used to refer to those colonies which had been acquired through wars, such as Trinidad and Tobago and British Guiana, but after that time it was more broadly applied to any colony other than the Presidencies and provinces of British India and the colonies of settlement, such as The Canadas, Newfoundland, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and New Zealand, later to become the Dominions.

The term continued to be used up until 1981, when the British Nationality Act 1981 reclassified the remaining British colonies as "British Dependent Territories". From 2002 they have been known as British Overseas Territories.

Types of Crown colony

There were three types of Crown colony as of 1918, with differing degrees of autonomy:

Crown colonies with representative councils such as Bermuda, Jamaica, Ceylon, British Columbia and Fiji contained one or two legislative chambers, consisting of Crown appointed or locally elected members.

Crown colonies with nominated councils such as British Honduras, Sierra Leone, Grenada and Hong Kong were staffed entirely by Crown appointed members, with some appointed representation from the local population. It should be noted that Hong Kong became a Crown colony with a representative council following the introduction of election for the Hong Kong Legislative Council in 1995.

Crown colonies ruled directly by a Governor such as Basutoland, Gibraltar, Saint Helena and Singapore were fewest in number and had the least autonomy.

List of Crown colonies

Name of colony	from	to	Reason for change of status
Aden	1937	1966
Anguilla	1980	1981	Became British Dependent Territory in 1981
Territory of Basutoland	1884	1964	Became British protectorate in 1964; then became independent as Lesotho in 1966.
British Bechuanaland	1885	1895
Bermuda	1684	1981	Became British Dependent Territory in 1981
North Borneo	1946	1963	Became part of Malaysia in 1963
Province of Canada	1841	1867	Became part of the Dominion of Canada in 1867.
Cape Colony	1806	1910	Became part of the Union of South Africa in 1910.
Province of North Carolina	1729	1776	Became part of the United States of America in 1776.
Province of South Carolina	1729	1776	Became part of the United States of America in 1776.
Cayman Islands	1962	1981	Became British Dependent Territory in 1981
Ceylon	1815	1948	Became independent as Ceylon in 1948.
Colony of British Columbia	1866	1871	Became part of the Dominion of Canada in 1871.
Connecticut Colony	1636	1776	Became part of the United States of America in 1776.
Cyprus	1914	1960	Became independent as Cyprus in 1960.
Falkland Islands	1841	1981	Became a British Dependent Territory in 1981.
Gibraltar	1713	1981	Became British Dependent Territory in 1981
British Guiana	1831	1966	Became independent as Guyana in 1966.
Province of Massachusetts Bay	1692	1776	Became part of the United States of America in 1776.
Province of New Hampshire	1692	1776	Became part of the United States of America in 1776.
Province of New Jersey	1702	1776	Became part of the United States of America in 1776.
Province of New York	1691	1776	Became part of the United States of America in 1776.
Colony of New Zealand	1841	1907	Became a Dominion in 1907.
British Honduras (renamed Belize in 1964)	1884	1981	Became independent (as Belize) in 1981)
Hong Kong	1841	1981	Became British Dependent Territory in 1981. Ceded to China in 1997.
Colony of Jamaica	1865	1962	Became independent in 1962 as Jamaica.
Kenya Colony	1920	1963	United with the Kenya Protectorate in 1963 to form the independent country of Kenya
Labuan	1846	1890	Administered by British North Borneo Company from 1890-1904
Labuan	1904	1906	Incorporated in Straits Settlements in 1906
Malta	1813	1964	Became independent in 1964 as the State of Malta.
Colony of Natal	1843	1910	Became part of the Union of South Africa in 1910.
New South Wales	1788	1901	Became part of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.
Queensland	1824	1901	Became part of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations	1806	1776	Became part of the United States of America in 1776 as the state of Rhode Island.
Colony of Sarawak	1946	1963	Became part of Malaysia in 1963
Sierra Leone	1808	1961
Straits Settlements consisting of Malacca, Dinding, Penang and Singapore (with Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands).	1826	1946	Became part of the Malayan Union in 1946 and later Malaysia 1963; Singapore joined Malaysia in 1963 but became independent in 1965.
Island of Vancouver and its dependencies	1848	1866	Merged with the Colony of British Columbia in 1866
Victoria	1851	1901	Became part of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.
Colony of Virginia	1624	1776	Became part of the United States of America in 1776.

See also

• Direct rule
• Crown dependency
• Self-governing colony
• Colonial Office
• British overseas territories
• British Empire

References

• Jenks, Edward (1918). The Government of the British Empire. Little, Brown, and company. 
• Olson, James (1996). Historical Dictionary of the British Empire. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-29366-X. 
• Porter, Andrew (1998). The Nineteenth Century, The Oxford History of the British Empire Volume III. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-924678-5. 
• Wrong, Hume (1923). "The Old Representative System: The Change To Crown Colony Government". Government of the West Indies. England: Oxford University Press. p. 71. ISBN 1-113-74149-X. Retrieved 2010-03-30. "The phrase 'Crown Colony Government' is used with various meanings. In the broadest, and perhaps most correct, sense it is applied to all the colonies in which the Crown retains the real control of the executive (i.e. to all the West Indian colonies). By both official and common usage, however, it is often narrowed as to exclude colonies with elected Assemblies, though without a responsible executive."