At the first arrival the executive and judicial powers were exercised by John Carver, without any authorized adviser.  After his death, in 1621, the same powers were vested in William Bradford as governor and Isaac Allerton as assistant.[28] In 1624 the number of assistants was increased to five and in 1633 to seven, and the governor was given a double voice.[29] The elective and legislative powers were vested in a primary assembly of all the freemen, called the “General Court,” held at short intervals.  One of these meetings was called the court of elections, and at this were chosen the governor and other officers of the colony for the ensuing year.

As the number of settlements increased, it became inconvenient for freemen to attend the general courts in person, and in 1638 the representative system was definitely introduced.  Plymouth was allowed four delegates, and each of the other towns two, and they, with the governor and his council of assistants, constituted the law-making body of the colony.  To be entitled to hold office or vote at the court of elections, the person had to be “a freeman”; and to acquire this character, he had to be specially chosen one of the company at one of the general courts.  Thus suffrage was regarded as a privilege and not a right.[30]

Although the first of the colonies to establish a Separatist church, the Puritans of Plymouth did not make church-membership a condition of citizenship; still, there can be no doubt that this restriction practically prevailed at Plymouth, since up to 1643 only about two hundred and thirty persons acquired the suffrage.  In the general laws of Plymouth, published in 1671, it was provided as a condition of receiving the franchise that “the candidate should be of sober and peaceable conversation, orthodox in the fundamentals of religion,” which was probably only a recognition of the custom of earlier times.[31] The earliest New England code of statutes was that of Plymouth, adopted in 1636.  It was digested under fifty titles and recognized seven capital offences, witchcraft being one.[32]

In the Plymouth colony, as in other colonies of New England, the unit of government was the town, and this town system was borrowed from Massachusetts, where, as we shall see, the inhabitants of Dorchester set the example, in 1633, of coming together for governmental purposes.  Entitled to take part in the town-meetings under the Plymouth laws were all freemen and persons “admitted inhabitants” of a town.  They elected the deputies of the general court and the numerous officers of the town, and had the authority to pass local ordinances of nearly every description.[33]

During the early days, except for the short time of Lyford’s service, Elder William Brewster was the spiritual guide for the people.  For a long time they kept the place of minister waiting for Robinson, but when he died they secured, in 1628, the services of Mr. Rogers, who proved to “be crazed in his brain” and had to be sent back the following year.  Then, in 1629, Mr. Ralph Smith was minister, and Roger Williams assisted him.  Smith was a man of small abilities, and after enduring him for eight years they persuaded him to resign.  After Smith’s resignation the office of minister at Plymouth was filled by Rev. John Rayner.[34]