Members of the lower house of the legislature in the royal colonies were elected by colonists who were qualified property owners (male freeholders who met voting requirements).

In practice, that meant:

  • Only men who owned a certain amount of land or property could vote for these representatives.
  • The governor and council (upper house) were appointed by the Crown, but the lower house was chosen in local elections by these eligible voters.
  • This system gave colonists a limited form of representative government while still keeping overall control in royal hands.

TL;DR: They were not chosen by the king or governor; they were elected by property-owning voters in the colonies.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.