New Albion (colony)

New Albion was an English colony in the area of modern-day New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland in the United States.

Colonization was unsuccessfully attempted by Sir Edmund Plowden, under the authority of a charter granted by Charles I in 1634. Settlement was first attempted under the command of Plowden in 1642, but this ended in an attempted mutiny, after which Plowden managed New Albion from the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, selling rights to adventurers and speculators, until he returned to England in 1649. Despite further attempts to return to his colony, Plowden died a pauper. A large area of his claim was later given by the Duke of York to John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton and Sir George Carteret, and became New Jersey.

See also

• English colonial empire
• Edmund Plowden (colonial governor)
• New Albion (Sir Francis Drake's claim of 1579)
• British colonization of the Americas
• New Netherland
• New Sweden
• New England
• Colonial America

References

• Edward C. Carter II and Clifford Lewis III "Sir Edmund Plowden and the New Albion Charter, 1632-1785" in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (April 1959).
• Clifford Lewis III. "Some Extracts Relating to Sir Edmund Plowden and Others from the Lost Minutes of the Virginia Council and General Court: 1642-1645" and "Some Notes on Sir Edmund Plowden's Attempts to Settle His Province of New Albion" in William and Mary Historical Quarterly (January 1940).
• Charles Varlo The Grant of King Charles the First, to Sir Edmund Plowden, Earl Palatine of Albion, of the Province of New Albion, in America, June 21, A.D., 1634 (1785) (Collection of the New York Public Library).