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The Great and General Court was the combined legislative assembly and court of final appeal of colonial-era Massachusetts. Following the declaration of independence of Massachusetts, the legislative and judicial functions were bifurcated, with the lawmaking authority continuing on in the General Court of Massachusetts and the judicial authority being vested in the newly constituted Supreme Judicial Court.

The Great and General Court was established under the charter that created the Massachusetts Bay Colony and had lawmaking power over both the colony and the Massachusetts Bay Company. The court met four times each year and, annually, would elect eighteen assistants who would, in turn, choose a governor and a deputy governor who would be vested with the executive authority of the colony.

The body first convened in October 1630, shortly after arrival of the Winthrop fleet. At its first session all adult males in Massachusetts were members of the body and 116, virtually all of those eligible to assume a seat in the assembly, attended. It was decided that, thereafter, the Great and General Court would be a representative body and each town would elect delegates by and from its free, adult, male inhabitants who were members in good standing of the town's church.

Shortly after the establishment of the Great and General Court the Viscount Saye and Sele, who was considering personal emigration to Massachusetts, wrote to Winthrop suggesting an upper chamber be added to be filled with a hereditary nobility. Massachusetts authorities considered the proposal but rejected it as theologically incompatible with Puritan teachings which rejected the notion that godliness and hereditary privilege could co-exist; that God, in fact, acted through the electoral process.

Nonetheless, bicameralism of a non-hereditary style was introduced in 1644 with the Great and General Court dividing itself into the House of Assistants (composed of the assistants), and the House of Deputies, each having veto power over the acts of the other.

Changes
In 1684 the charter of Massachusetts was revoked by James II and the colonies of New England merged into the newly created Dominion of New England under direct, royal rule. In 1689, following the Glorious Revolution, the last elected House of Assistants assembled and reconstituted the Great and General Court as the penultimate authority in Massachusetts.

A new royal charter was issued in 1691 which significantly altered the constitution of legal organs in Massachusetts. For the first time, the judicial authority was separated from the Great and General Court and transferred to a Superior Court of Judicature. The Governor, meanwhile, would be appointed by the Crown and hold a legislative veto as would the Privy Council in London, though the make-up of the Great and General Court would otherwise be generally unamended (the name of the lower house was changed from the House of Deputies to the House of Representatives). Finally, the right to vote was extended to all adult, male landholders, and not just Puritans.

The Great and General Court managed to sidestep the imposition of new levels of direct rule by passing laws set to expire after two years, so that the Privy Council would never have time to review new legislation. Because it also was responsible for setting and paying the salary of the Crown-appointed governors, and had the authority to remove - thought not appoint - governors, it had the ability to strongarm the executive.

End of the Great and General Court
In 1774 Governor Thomas Gage dissolved the Great and General Court. A shadow legislature, terming itself the "provincial congress", began meeting and, following the Battles of Lexington and Concord organized elections to a new Great and General Court which voted to remove Gage as governor. As the Great and General Court only had the authority to remove governors, and not appoint them, it thereafter declared the office of Governor vacant and provisionally transferred executive power to the House of Assistants.

Following the American Revolution, with the office of Governor now permanently vacant due to the absence of the Crown, the Great and General Court organized itself into a constitutional convention to establish a new legal order in Massachusetts. In October 1780, exactly 150 years after the first session of the Great and General Court, the body was superseded by the General Court of Massachusetts.