I Live In A Commonwealth. Do you?

This is a really random subject to blog about but my fiances brother asked me why Virginia considers itself a commonwealth and I could not answer the question. So I decided to research it and thought I could enlighten you as well.

The term commonwealth, dating back to the fifteenth century, literally meant "common well-being." Now the term is generally used to mean a "political community." There are 4 states that consider themselves "commonwealths." Namely Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Kentucky. The type of communities that a commonwealth deals with in these instances are "a political unit founded in law by agreement of the people for the common good."

Basically commonwealths are commonwealths because they decided to be, not because there is any difference between it and a state (at least in modern times).

Below is a quick summary of why each specific state became a commonwealth, as far as I have found in my research. Feel free to add if you know anything else.

Virginia: In colonial times VA was known as the Colony and Dominion of Virginia. When the 13 colonies broke ties with the British Crown that name was no longer acceptable. When the first Constitution of Virginia was adopted, commonwealth was used to name the new form of government. More than likely they were referring back more than a 100 years previous when the puritans were not ruled by the crown.

Kentucky: Originally a part of VA and when it became the 15th state in the US, it continued to use the term

Massachusetts:Previous to 1780, on all documents the term state was used for Massachusetts. But in 1780, when the Massachusetts Constitution went into effect they became known as the "Commonwealth of Massachusetts." In the era leading up to that time, commonwealth was a popular term for a body of people constituting a state. John Adams added the term when framing the Constitution where it remained. The term had democratic overtones and there may have been some anti-monarchial sentiment in its usage.

Pennsylvania: As hard as I am trying I can't find a definite answer for this one but I assume it has something to do with their independence from Great Britain and the anti-monarchial sentiment when the Constitution was written.