Answer:
Maryland was the first proprietary colony.
Explanation:
A proprietary colony was similar to a fief. In these colonies, an individual or a group owned the colony and controlled all government actions and institutions. Most of the British colonies in North America, including Virginia, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maine, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Delaware, were of this type for at least part of their existence. Pennsylvania, in fact, still bears the name of its first owner governor, William Penn.
Between 1660 and 1672 the Navigation Acts were approved in England, which sought a restructuring of the colonies linking them more closely to the metropolis. Some of the proprietary colonies became royal colonies, dependent on England for almost everything, but Maryland managed to remain an owner colony until independence, probably because it already depended mostly on the provisions and goodwill of the English parliament to continue enjoying political autonomy that, in the end, was more virtual than real.
