House of Burgesses

House of Burgesses, the first representative legislative body in colonial America, formed at Jamestown on July 30, 1619. Two burgesses represented each of the 11 boroughs of Virginia. The House of Burgesses, which was neither approved nor disapproved of by England, conformed to English law and managed all affairs of the colony. The House was dissolved in 1774, and many of the delegates were then elected to the First Continental Congress.