While there are some variations, common designs include a plain colored field (usually red) with a pine tree in the canton.

The eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) is the most common and prominent symbol of New England and is featured on many of the region's flags.

Another variant has a red ensign with an image of a pine tree over a white field in the canton, and contains no cross; which is commonly used by the New England Revolution Major League Soccer team.

One of the Newburyport green ensigns depicted mailed hands arranged in a circle, which is a symbol of the divine in Puritan iconography.

Roger Williams, a prominent religious leader then based in Salem declared the symbol counter to the Reformation and a vestige of papal authority over the king.

John Endicott who was inspired by Williams and then a member of the Council of Assistants ordered that the cross be cut out from flags in the colony.

A freeman of the colony named Richard Browne was disturbed by this and feared it could signal to authorities in England that the colonists were rebelling.

The controversy remained, and some units refused to train for militia duty under a flag bearing St George's Cross.

For a time, a version of the red ensign with the Royal Standard of Charles I in place of the cross of St. George was used, but this practice ended following the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 and the eventual abolition of the monarchy in 1649.

In 1651, the Commonwealth of England's Puritan parliament officially revived the standard red ensign, emphasizing the need for the flag to be used in Boston.

Governor John Winthrop therefore ordered that the red ensign containing the cross be kept on Castle Island for this reason.

Judge Samuel Sewall, who ordered the royal ensign be restored wrote in his diary, "I was and am in great exercise about the Cross to be put into the Colours, and afraid if I should have a hand in 't whether it may not hinder my Entrance into the Holy Land.

This new design would use the cross of St George but would also contain the image of a tree in the top left corner of the flag.

Other sources such as John Beaumont's The Present State of the Universe from 1701 also portrays an English flag defaced with a tree.

Along with some French and Dutch sources, it appears towards the end of the 17th century this design was growing more popular for New England ships.

Despite this, many New England vessels continued to fly the older version with the pine tree defacement.

The colonist, dressed in hunting clothes and wearing a phrygian cap, holds a flag which is an ensign of the Kingdom of Great Britain with a pine tree on a white background in the top left corner.

They saw themselves as a separate nation founded on Puritan religious teaching that was attempting to establish a pure society.

As the New England settlements grew, Puritan based separatism waned with a want for greater political and commercial autonomy taking its place.

One such example is a New England pine flag with a gold or a buff field which was flown in the Connecticut Colony.

Pine flags were seen on Patriot New Englander naval vessels off the coast of Nova Scotia and on the Charles River.

[28] Some controversy exists concerning which flag flew at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775 at the onset of the American Revolutionary War.

[29] According to author Boleslaw Mastai, a specialist in American Antiquities, the blue field was due to an error in a wood engraving which caused confusion among painters.

This flag was the ensign of the Massachusetts Bay Navy and the early colonial patriot naval force.

Other researchers have pointed to the use of the pine in the ship building of the region, and suggested the importance of the symbol may be due to New England's maritime culture.

[33][34] A flag designed by William Cork was presented to Le Congres Mondial Acadien in Nova Scotia in 2004.

[36] It is the blue "Bunker Hill Flag" defaced with six five-pointed stars in a circle in the fly to represent the six New England states.

At that meeting, the governors approved a motion to adopt the flag as the "official emblem of the New England Conference".