By the time anything resembling a language policy was introduced, English had already reached all corners of the globe. For example, English-speaking puritans were not the only Europeans to arrive in North America: Spanish, French, Dutch and German were also widely spoken.
immemorial - long past; beyond the limits of memory or tradition or recorded history; time immemorial. old - of long duration; not new; old tradition; old house; old wine; old country; old friendships; old money.
The Brahmins maintain that in the almost endless sculptures of that immemorial pagoda, all the trades and pursuits, every conceivable avocation of man, were prefigured ages before any of them actually came into being.