A proprietary colony was a colony

Colony

In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

 in which one or more individuals, usually land owners, remaining subject to their parent state

Sovereign state

A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...

's sanctions, retained rights that are today regarded as the privilege of the state, and in all cases eventually became so.
This type of colonial government based on the County Palatine

County palatine

A county palatine or palatinate is an area ruled by an hereditary nobleman possessing special authority and autonomy from the rest of a kingdom or empire. The name derives from the Latin adjective palatinus, "relating to the palace", from the noun palatium, "palace"...

 and resembling feudal grants of fiefs in exchange for service more than the modern concept of state sovereignty, was used by England's colonization

English colonial empire

The English colonial empire consisted of a variety of overseas territories colonized, conquered, or otherwise acquired by the former Kingdom of England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries....

 along the Atlantic coasts of North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

.

Most were run under a colonial charter

Colonial charter

A charter is a document that gave colonies the legal rights to exist.A charter is a document bestowing certain rights on a town, city, university or an institution....

 agreement, which was reviewed by the ruling Monarch.