Being more standard - names for colonies before 1776
I've noticed that recently, the standard place names for colonies in British Colonial America sometimes add the word "colony" to the future state name, and sometimes do not. It would be a big help if that could be done consistently. For example, Connecticut is standardized as "Connecticut Colony" while Maryland is standardized as just "Maryland." I try to keep my local database in sync with the Standard Place Name database, but this makes it much more difficult to do so.
Mike St. Clair
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This is why it gets difficult.... While the Standard Places Names should be the official names, it can be ****** difficult to work out those official names. And I do have sympathy with anyone trying to keep stuff in line.
Wikipedia's article on "Connecticut Colony" refers to "The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony" - all those variants contain the word colony.
Its article on the "Province of Maryland" similarly says "The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony".
So if you only refer to Wikipedia, the official names are Connecticut Colony" and "Province of Maryland". Except that for the latter, you can follow the links through to the 1632 founding charter of Maryland (see https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ma01.asp ), wherein it says "We do, for Ifs' [??] our Heirs and Successors, erect and incorporate the same into a Province, and nominate the same Maryland, by which Name We will that it shall from henceforth be called". (My emphasis) So while it is a Province, the name by which it shall be called is just "Maryland", not "Province of Maryland". The former is a name, the latter a description...
Now if one could but find the equivalent for the other areas....
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Try URL https://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/statech.asp for the "Colonial Charters, Grants and Related Documents"
Just to prove how tricky it is, the "Charter of Connecticut - 1662" doesn't appear - at a very quick first glance - to name the colony - rather it names the Governor and Company, viz: "by the Name of, Governor and Company of the English colony of Connecticut in New-England, in America".
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