A Crown colony, also known in the 17th century as royal colony, was a type of colonial administration of the English and later British Empire. Crown, or royal colonies were ruled by a governor which is decided by the Monarch. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Sovereign appointed royal governors on the advice of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Under the name of "royal colony", the first of what would later become known as Crown colonies was the English Colony of Virginia. This happened in 1624 after the Crown removed the Royal Charter it had given to the Virginia Company.