Plymouth Company

Plymouth Company, commercial trading company chartered by the English crown in 1606 to colonize the eastern coast of North America in present-day New England. Its shareholders were merchants of Plymouth, Bristol, and Exeter. Its twin company was the more successful Virginia Company. The Plymouth Company established a colony on the coast of Maine in 1607 but soon abandoned it. Inactive after 1609, it was reorganized under a new charter in 1620 as the Council for New England. See also chartered company.