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.[1] 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.[2] 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.[1][2] 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.[2]
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.[2] 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.[1]
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
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)
^ abcBowman, Frank O. (2019). "3: American Impeachments Before 1787". High crimes and misdemeanors : a history of impeachment for the age of Trump. Cambridge, United Kingdom. ISBN9781108481052.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)