Early English colonies were often
proprietary colonies, usually established and administered by
companies under charters granted by the monarch. The first "royal colony" was the
Colony of Virginia, after 1624, when the Crown of the
Kingdom of England revoked the
royal charter it had granted to the
Virginia Company and assumed control of government of the territory. Executive crown governors are sometimes complemented by a locally appointed and/or elected
legislature with limited powers – that is, such territories lack a fully sovereign
government locally, as some powers (eg over foreign relations, or constitutional amendment, or defense) remain in the hands of the parliament or executive government in London. For example, while the
House of Assembly of Bermuda has existed continuously since its first session in 1620, Bermuda has only had a fully sovereign locally elected responsible government since 1968. (Bermuda became a Crown colony in 1684, when the government revoked a royal charter given to the
Somers Isles Company, successor to the
Virginia Company, which had previously controlled administration, including the appointment of governors; thenceforth (until 1968) the government in London appointed the
Governor of Bermuda.) Despite its later usage, the term "Crown colony" was used primarily, until the mid-19th century, to refer to colonies that had been acquired through wars, such as
Trinidad and Tobago. From the mid-19th century, the term was more broadly applied to every
British territory other than
British India, including many self-governing colonies, amongst them the
Province of Canada,
Newfoundland,
British Columbia,
New South Wales,
Queensland,
South Australia,
Tasmania,
Victoria,
Western Australia, and
New Zealand. By the mid-19th century, the monarch was appointing colonial governors only on the advice of the
Secretary of State for the Colonies, who in turn -- depending on the level of local government and representation present in the colony -- would also take soundings or receive suggestions as to the best person to appoint from those in the colony's extant
in situ government.
Reclassification (1981) The term Crown colony continued to be used until 1981, when the
British Nationality Act 1981 reclassified the remaining British colonies as "British Dependent Territories". By this time, the term "Crown colony" referred specifically to colonies lacking substantial autonomy, which were administered by an executive governor, appointed by the British Government – such as
Hong Kong, before its transfer in 1997 to the
People's Republic of China. In 2002, the
British Overseas Territories Act 2002 further changed their name to
British Overseas Territories. ==Types==