The Common Law in Colonial America: Volume I: The Chesapeake and New England 1607-1660William E. Nelson here proposes a new beginning in the study of colonial legal history. Examining all archival legal material for the period 1607 1776 and synthesizing existing scholarship in a four volume series, The Common Law in Colonial America shows how the legal systems of Britain's thirteen North American colonies initially established in response to divergent political, economic, and religious initiatives slowly converged into a common