Reconstituting Empire: Charters and State Formation in Early Modern England with Boone Ayala
In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, we speak with Boone Ayala. He discusses his research on chartered corporations as instruments of imperial rule and his work at the MHS on the 1684 revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Company’s charter, which he situates within a broader assault on corporate autonomy happening simultaneously across England. We also hear about his path from computer science major to historian and some objects he encountered in the MHS collections, including a musket from the 1689 siege of Fort Hill and Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Leverett’s blood-stained buff coat from the English Civil Wars.
Boone J. Ayala is a recipient of the W.B.H. Dowse Fellowship from the MHS.
To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page.
Episode Special Guest:
Boone Jackson Ayala is a PhD candidate in history at the University of Chicago. His work focuses on the relationship between corporate law and politics in Restoration England and its empire. An article based on his research at the Massachusetts Historical Society entitled "'No Other than a Corporation': Law, Politics, and the End of the Massachusetts Bay Company", is set to be published in the October 2026 issue of the William and Mary Quarterly.
This episode uses materials from:
Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)
