(1606–09) Commercial trading company chartered by the English crown to colonize the eastern coast of North America in present-day New England.
Also called the Virginia Colony of Plymouth, its shareholders were merchants of Plymouth, Bristol, and Exeter. Its twin company was the more successful London 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 .