What is significant about having a royal colony?

Royal colonies (also called Crown colonies) were significant because they had a direct connection to the British crown. Unlike in proprietary and charter (also known as self-governing) colonies, the monarch directly appointed the governors of royal colonies. As you might expect, the monarch exerted more direct influence over these colonies than the other types, because he could give the governor direct instructions and fire him if he did not carry them out to the letter. Consequently, tensions tended to run high in royal colonies with a strong revolutionary spirit, such as Massachusetts.
In colonial America, Massachusetts; Virginia, North Carolina; New Hampshire; New Jersey; and New York were all royal colonies at one point or another (some had begun as self-governing or proprietary colonies but had been turned into royal colonies by the British monarchy).