Book Description

Excerpt from The Charter and the Acts and Laws of His Majesties Colony of Rhode-Island, and Providence-Plantations in America, 1719: A Fac-Simile Reprint With a Bibliographical and Historical Introduction This Digest the titles Of which have been already given, was printed in Boston in new-england by John Allen for Nicholas Boone at the Sign of the Bible, in Cornhill, 1719, the date of the second title is 1179. The pagination is, first title, not counted, two pages; charter, eight pages; second title, not counted, two pages; the Laws 1 to 102 both inclusive; and the Table, or Index four pages. There is no page 51, but there are two pages num bered 52, and there are no pages 92 or 93. The edition con sisted of about eighty copies, and possibly a few more; the Colony purchased for the printer four score law books. The history of the book is as follows; at the July session 1715 a Committee was appointed to transcribe, fit and prepare for the press all the laws contained in the whole body of laws in the Colony which laws lie in a very disordered condition and only in the hands of some few persons. Thomas Frye and Andrew Harris comprised the committee; when ready the laws were to be submitted to the Assembly for confirmation. It was found that some reconstruction of the laws Was necessary and at its October session 1717 a Commission to revise, correct, transcribe and fit for the press the laws was created. Gov. Joseph Jenckes, Thomas Frye, Nathaniel Newdigate and Richard Ward (recorder Of the Colony) comprised the Commission. In June 1718 the Assembly ordered the General Recorder, Richard Ward, to tran scribe the laws for the press with marginal notes thereon (col. Rec. 4 p. 234) and the book was printed as herein stated. In May 1719 the whole edition was distributed by the Assembly in this way - one copy to each member Of the Assembly, and one copy to each town, to be lodged in the town clerk's Office for the use of the town; this left twenty-nine Copies, which were divided among the towns in this way, to Newport, four, to Providence, five, to Portsmouth, three, to Warwick, three, to Westerly, three, to New Shoreham, two, to Kingstown, five, to East Greenwich, two, to Jamestown, two. There is no record of te-enactment of this Digest by the General Assembly nor Of the repeals of former laws not contained in it. It is in this Digest that the clause excluding Roman Catholics from political rights first appears; but a discussion Of the origin of this clause will be held for a place later in this Introduction. The Errors of the Press in this Digest were found to be so numerous, that it became necessary at once to have them corrected; the General Assembly immediately, in September 1719, appointed a committee to correct and get them printed. NO copy Of this publication is known.[7. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.