Definition
In legal and constitutional usage, "colonies" refers to territories or settlements established by a sovereign power in a foreign land, subject to the political authority and legal jurisdiction of the parent or "mother" state, yet distinct from it in governance, representation, and often in the application of domestic law. The term carries its fullest legal significance in the context of British colonial administration and, specifically, in American constitutional history — where the thirteen original British colonies in North America formed the foundational political units from which the United States emerged.
In the American context, the colonies were self-governing entities operating under royal charters, proprietary grants, or direct crown authority, each with its own legislative assembly, yet remaining formally subordinate to the British Crown and Parliament. Their legal transformation into sovereign states occurred through the Declaration of Independence (1776) and was confirmed through the Treaty of Paris (1783). The original thirteen colonies — Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia — became the first states of the Union and their colonial legal traditions directly shaped American common law, property law, and constitutional structure.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Simply the plural of "colony" — settlements or territories under the control of a distant power, or loosely, any community established in a new location.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A body of people transplanted from their mother country to a remote province or country, and remaining subject to the jurisdiction of the parent state; also, the territory so settled.
The gap between common and legal meaning lies in the constitutional and historical weight the term carries in American legal sources. In legal research, "the colonies" almost invariably signals a specific reference to the pre-Revolutionary British North American settlements and their legal heritage — not colonies in the generic geographic or biological sense. A researcher encountering the term in constitutional commentary, common law treatises, or early American statutes should read it as a term of art pointing to that particular historical and jurisdictional context.
Common Confusion
"Colonies" is sometimes conflated with "territories" in the American legal framework. The distinction matters: territories are domestic political units within the jurisdiction of the United States, governed under congressional authority (as in Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution). Colonies were entities subject to a foreign sovereign — the British Crown — and predated American constitutional governance. The legal rights and status of inhabitants differ fundamentally across these frameworks. Additionally, "colonies" should not be confused with "provinces," which is the term used for comparable units in British Canada and other legal systems.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter "colonies" most heavily in three contexts: (1) colonial-era primary sources and statutes, where the laws of a specific colony govern a transaction or legal relationship; (2) early American constitutional and common law commentary, where pre-Revolutionary colonial practice is invoked to establish the original meaning or common law background of a rule; and (3) property law and land grant research, where colonial charters and grants form the root of title in the original thirteen states.
Key navigational intelligence:
Colonial law was not uniform. Each colony had its own charter and legislative history, and the reception of English common law varied by colony and by subject matter. A rule treated as common law in Virginia may have had a different status in Massachusetts. Researchers should not assume that "colonial law" means a single body of rules.
The term "colonies" in pre-1789 sources refers to British political units; in post-1789 sources, it increasingly becomes a historical reference used to ground constitutional arguments. The shift matters for how much legal weight the cited practice carries.
Anderson's Dictionary of Law (1889) treats "colonies" as a see-also entry rather than a defined term, directing researchers to related headings. This reflects the reality that by the late nineteenth century, the legal significance of "the colonies" in American law was primarily historical and interpretive rather than operative.
Researchers working on questions of religious establishment, taxation, common law reception, or early American independence will find that colonial legal sources are indispensable primary materials. Anderson's cross-references — to INDEPENDENCE, COMMON LAW, RELIGION, STATE, and TAX — map the terrain accurately.
Historical Dictionary Support
Anderson's Dictionary of Law (1889) does not define "colonies" as a standalone term but instead uses it as a portal entry, cross-referencing INDEPENDENCE; LAW, Common; RELIGION; STATE, 2; and TAX, 2. This editorial choice is itself informative: by 1889, "colonies" had largely ceased to be an operative legal concept in American law and functioned instead as a historical marker. Anderson's cross-references suggest the legal questions most likely to arise in connection with colonial history — the establishment of American independence from British rule, the reception of English common law into American jurisdictions, questions of religious establishment carried over from colonial charters, the definition of "state" as it evolved from colonial unit to constitutional actor, and the taxation disputes that precipitated the Revolution.
No major divergence among historical dictionaries is notable here; the term is treated consistently as a reference point for American constitutional origins rather than as a term with ongoing operative definition.
Jurisdictional Note
In the original thirteen states, colonial-era statutes and common law practices remain potentially relevant as background law, particularly in property, inheritance, and ecclesiastical matters. Researchers in these states should be attentive to whether a given rule traces to colonial rather than post-constitutional sources, as different rules of construction may apply.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: American Constitutional Origins; Reception of the Common Law in the United States; Colonial Charters and Land Grants.