# Impeachment in the Thirteen Colonies

Legislative bodies in several of the Thirteen Colonies belonging to England that later formed the original states of the United States held impeachments to remove officeholders and bring other penalties. Impeachment was a process carried over from England. Unlike in modern America but similarly to the practice of impeachment in England, in at least some of the colonies, impeachment was a process that could also be used to try non-officeholders and give criminal penalties. However, in practice, the colonies primarily limited their impeachments to officeholders and punishment to removal from office. Most charges in impeachments were related to misconduct in office. Impeachments in the colonies used a similar bifurcated process to the contemporary English and modern American practice of an impeachment vote followed by an impeachment trial. Like both the English impeachment practice and modern United States federal impeachment practice, the charges would be brought by a colonial legislature's lower chamber and tried in its upper chamber.
In England itself, after falling out of fashion by the mid-15th century, impeachment began to be used again by the Parliament of England in the early 17th century. Likewise, in 1635, the Thirteen Colonies saw what has come to be considered its first impeachment action when the Colony of Virginia moved to initiate the removal of its governor, John Harvey.

## Individuals impeached by colonial governments

| Date | Government | Accused | Office (and other notability) | Result | Notes |
| April 1635 | Colony of Virginia | John Harvey | Governor of Virginia | After the colony voted to initiate a removal, Harvey was effectively suspended and was returned to England to face trial before the House of Lords, however he never faced trial as the House of Lords did not consider the colony to have the authority to initiate such an action | Removal effort has only retrospectively been considered an impeachment |
| 1669 | Province of Maryland | John Morecroft | Member of the Assembly of Free Marylanders | Acquitted | |
| 1676 | Province of Maryland | Thomas Trueman | No office (landholding aristocrat) | Found guilty on May 27, 1676. Fined and released. | |
| May 27, 1676 | Province of Maryland | Charles James | Sheriff of Caecill County, Maryland | Found guilty of battery and perjury on June 1, 1676 and removed from office; no criminal penalty given | |
| 1682 | Province of Maryland | Jacob Young | Indian interpreter | Found guilty and removed from office in 1663 | |
| May 15, 1685 | Province of Pennsylvania | Nicholas More | Chief justice of Pennsylvania | Impeachment never tried | |
| 1706 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | John Borland, Roger Lawson, William Rouse, Samuel Vetch | No office (merchant captains) | Found guilty and given criminal sentences; sentences later invalidated by the Privy Council of England | |
| 1707 | Province of Pennsylvania | James Logan | Member of the Provincial Council | Impeachment abandoned for lack of a venue described by law to try the impeachment in (law at the time had allowed for impeachment by the Assembly, but omitted prescription of a venue to try impeachments in) | |
| April 1719 | Province of South Carolina | Nicholas Trott | Chief justice South Carolina | Found guilty and removed | Some scholars dispute that Trott's trial and removal was formally an impeachment |
| 1754 | Province of Pennsylvania | William Moore | Justice of the peace (also a landowner and militia leader) | Impeachment process halted after Privy Council of England ruled that the Pennsylvania Assembly did not have the authority | |
| 1774 | Massachusetts Bay Colony | Peter Oliver | Chief justice of Massachusetts | Impeachment process abandoned | |