University of Virginia Library

THE TRANSCRIPTS OF THE VIRGINIA RECORDS

RANDOLPH COPY

It is now certain that at least two copies of the court book existed at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, since the so-called John Randolph [of Roanoke]
copy has recently come to light.[105] It bears every evidence of being an eighteenth
century transcript made from the contemporary copy now in the Library of Congress;
the manuscript is of the century following that of the contemporary copy; the
order, paragraphing, form of insertion of documents, and material is identical; but
the omissions and errors arise from illegibility in the earlier manuscript. The
other differences lie in occasional carelessness by the copyist and in the fact that
the abbreviations are expanded and the spelling and the capitalization are modernized.

The caption of the first volume of this eighteenth century copy is as follows:
"The Ancient Records of this Colony under The Treasurer and Company." It
opens with "A Quarter Court held for Virginia at Sir Thomas Smith's house in

Philpott Lane, 28th of April 1619," and ends on page 535 with the court of July 3,
1622. The final statement is as follows: "The rest of the Company's Acts are
contained in a Second Volume." Volume II begins with a court of July 17, 1622,
and closes on page 491 with the proceedings of June 7, 1624. It bears the caption,
"The Records of the Company of Virginia, Vol. 2d." Pages 492 to 502 include a
list of "The names of the Adventurers for Virginia, as they were in the Year 1620."
On the inside of the board of this volume is written the name, "Sam'l Perkins of
Cawson." There is a third volume of this series of transcripts which is described
by Mr. Robinson thus: "The other volume begins with the first charter to the
proprietors of Carolina dated the 24th of March, in the fifteenth year of Charles II,
(1663) and ends page 543 with report of the petition of Philip Laudwell against the
Lord Effingham made by the Lords Committees of Trade and Plantations, Dated at
the Council Chamber 26th of April 1689." This document ends on page 530. The
volume closes on page 544 with "A Memorial for obtaining a more perfect Rent
Roll, & advancing Her Majesty's Quit Rents in Virginia". On the first cover is the
date, "Sep 19th 1759."

Mr. Brown thinks that these copies were made for Colonel Richard Bland from
Colonel Byrd's volumes and passed to Theodorick Bland of the family of Cawson,
the grandfather of John Randolph of Roanoke, to whom they finally came. He
adds that the Byrd volumes went to Mr. Jefferson with the Bland collection, which
he bought about 1776, instead of the copies therefrom.[106] Mr. Jameson suggests that
John Randolph of Roanoke may have inherited these transcripts from his great
uncle, Sir John Randolph. In this case also they would have been made from Mr.
Byrd's volumes, and perhaps should have gone to Mr. Jefferson with the Peyton
Randolph library, but this would not account for the name "Cawson" in the
second volume. Furthermore, according to Mr. Stanard, John Randolph of
Roanoke was not an heir to Sir John Randolph, and the families were not even
on friendly terms. Mr. Brown's supposition seems the more plausible, since
Theodorick Bland, jr., of Cawson may have received the volumes from the son
of Richard Bland by gift or purchase, though not by inheritance, and, as Theo-
dorick Bland, jr., died without heirs in 1790, the books may have become the
property of his sister's son, John Randolph of Roanoke.

The location of these volumes since the time of the death of John Randolph
of Roanoke is known. According to Mr. Brown, John Randolph[107] in a codicil to

his will in 1826 left his library to the master and fellows of Trinity College,
Cambridge, but in 1831 so altered the will as to bequeath it to his niece, E. T.
Bryan. Certain it is, however, that for ten years after his death on May 4, 1833, the
volumes remained in his library in Roanoke, for Hon. Hugh Blair Grigsby examined
them at that place on January 11, 1843. The library was sold in 1845, but it is
evident from the statement of Judge William Leigh, the executor of the estate,
that the Randolph copy of the court book remained in his hands.

The later history of this copy is told by Mr. Leigh Robinson, of Washington,
D.C., as follows:

"A complete transcript of the Records of the Virginia Company had been in the
possession of John Randolph of Roanoke, and by Mr. Randolph's executor, Judge
William Leigh, was placed in the hands of my father, shortly after the termination
of the war between the States. The Virginia Historical Society, having then no
shelter of safety for such a work, my father placed it in the Vaults of one of the
banks of Richmond, with a view to transferring it to the Society, as soon as it
could be done with Safety. His death occurred before (in his opinion) this could be
done. After his death, his family transferred to the Society the copy made by him-
self. It was some time before they were able to discover the place of deposit of the
Randolph Copy. But they finally recovered it, and transferred this also to the Vir-
ginia Historical Society, where it now is."[108]

Mr. Conway Robinson, the father of Mr. Leigh Robinson, prepared for the press
two volumes of abstracts from the court book, which were edited later by R. A.
Brock for the Virginia Historical Society and entitled Virginia Company, 1619–1624.
Robinson states that in the preparation of the volumes he had many transcripts made
through Mr. Mehan from the copy in the Library of Congress, and also from the
Randolph volumes which Judge Leigh had loaned to him.[109]

The third volume of this Randolph series, which is cited both by Burk and
by Hening[110] as "Ancient Records, Volume III," was copied from the transcript
attested by R. Hickman. This volume of Miscellaneous Records, 1606–1692, is the
only volume which contains the substance found in the Randolph copy, and is of

an earlier date, and, like the original rolls, is less chronological in arrangement.
That the Randolph copy was not made from the original records is evidenced by
the fact that the abstracts are identical with those of the Hickman or "Bland" copy.

That both Hening and Burk used the Randolph copies of the court book and
also the third volume of that series is proved by their descriptions of the volumes,
while the page references to "Ancient Records" cited by Hening coincide in each
case with these three volumes. Mr. Hening speaks of three large folio volumes not
in the orthography of the age of the events, and compiled without much regard to
method for the purpose of forming material for a history of Virginia, and states
that the first two volumes are minutes of the proceedings of the London Company,
and the third an epitome of the legislative and judicial acts of authorities in Vir-
ginia, so far as then extant, which were regularly transmitted to England. These,
he continues, were used by John Burk, who got them from John Randolph, and
also by Skelton Jones, 1809, to complete Burk's History of Virginia.[111] Mr. Burk
himself declares that there are two large volumes, instead of three, as stated by
Hening, "containing the minutes of the London Company together with the pro-
ceedings of the Virginia Councils and Assembly, with little interruption to the middle of the reign of George II."[112]

JEFFERSON TRANSCRIPTS

The three volumes containing transcripts of the Virginia Records which came
from the Jefferson Library in 1815 are unique, containing copies of records since
destroyed. Two of them are attested by R. Hickman, the deputy clerk of the
general court in 1722, and the third is the only seventeenth century transcript in
our possession. Unlike the Randolph copies, the two large volumes include copies
of records since destroyed.

Of this group the "First laws made by the assembly in Va. Anno 1623"
bears on the back of the last page the following indorsement in Mr. Jefferson's
hand: "This was found among the manuscript papers of Sr John Randolph and by
the Hoñble. Peyton Randolph, esq. his son was given to Tho. Jefferson," and is
attested as follows: "Copia Test R. Hickman D C G C." This early eighteenth
century transcript was made by the same copyist as were the Miscellaneous Records,
1606–1692, and is the volume used by Hening and referred to in his first volume,
pages 121–129. It must also be the subject of a letter from Thomas Jefferson to
Hening, April 8, 1815, in which he states that the manuscript marked "A" contains
laws of 1623–24, thirty-five acts, which was given him by Peyton Randolph from
the materials used by Sir John Randolph, and which Mr. Jefferson declares to

be the "Only copy extant of those laws!"[113] In 1803 Mr. Jefferson had declined to
lend to Mr. John D. Burk some of the printed laws of Virginia in his possession,
since they were unique and could not be replaced.[114] The internal evidence points to
the fact that Hening also used the other volumes of this set, a fact corroborated
by the following statement of Mr. Jefferson in a letter to Mr. George Watterson,
May 7, 1815: "I gave to Mr. Milligan a note of those folio volumes of the Laws of
Virginia belonging to the Library which being in known hands, will be recovered.
One is a MS. volume from which a printed copy is now preparing for publica-
tion."[115] Mr. Hening was doubtless using them in the preparation of his later
volumes. Certain it is that these documents form the basis for a part of his first
volume, in which he cites the Journal of the Council and Assembly, 1626–1634, as
belonging to Thomas Jefferson, and as having been "purchased by him with the
library of Peyton Randolph, from his executors." The third, the Miscellaneous
Records, 1606–1692, he states was bought by Mr. Jefferson "from the executor of
Richard Bland, dec'd."[116]

The seventeenth century volume, entitled Instructions, Commic̃ons letters of
Advice and admonitions and Publique Speeches, Proclamations &c: Collected,
transcribed and diligently examined by the Originall Records, now extant, belonging
to the Assemblie, is a vellum-covered book, with an embossed figure on the back
cover, and with the following: "E / 1621 / Publiq̢ Letters / and Orders." On the
outside of the front cover upside down is: "E / John Bland / Richard Blan [d]/
Alexander Morrison," / while on the half that remains of the first fly leaf is the
name "Nelson." On the fly leaf in the book in pencil is the statement: "date of
MSS 1650–1695;" and on the front cover similarly is: "17" Century copie Bland."
This presence of Richard Bland's name in the book shows that Mr. Jefferson secured
it with the Bland Library. The writing of the volume is similar to the early seven-
teenth century system in many of the abbreviations, the use of the double f, and the
formation of some of the letters. Evidently this is a collection of correspondence
of the colony, transcribed from the court books and from the miscellaneous papers
of the three volumes of the manuscript records of the company.[117]

The second volume of documents from 1606 to 1692 is in an eighteenth century
hand, many of the documents bearing the attestation of R. Hickman. The binding

is in calf and bears on the back the red label, "Vir/. Records." Bound into the
back of this volume is a small quarto of twenty-five pages, containing outlines of
documents in the Manuscript Records of the Company, which serves to identify the
loose pages of the original records as Roll A. 42, and an abstract of Captain Argall's
register during his government.[118] The documents in the folio volume are charters,
instructions, commissions, letters from the Privy Council, and other documents
emanating from the Crown, together with one or two from the company and from
the council in Virginia.[119] That this volume is the one used by Hening in his Statutes
and referred to as the "Bland copy,"[120] is indicated by the contents as well as by the
fact that it includes the quarto volume. His reason for citing it as the "Bland copy"
can only be surmised, namely, that he had Mr. Jefferson's statement that it had been
secured with the Bland library, an erroneous designation as is proved by Stith's
statement in his preface, that R. Hickman made a copy of the Records for Sir John
Randolph.[121] But the volume has been known for the past century as the "Bland
copy," although its title as a "Hickman" or a "Randolph" volume would be more
appropriate.

The conclusions which have been formed with regard to these original and
contemporary manuscripts and the later transcripts disclose little concerning the
circumstances under which they were made, or the original owners of the volumes.
But the important facts to discover, in order to determine their authenticity, are
the period of the transcript and the documents from which the copies were made,
and these facts in each case have been ascertained.[122]

The Library of Congress has recently acquired a large number of transcripts
of those manuscripts now in the libraries of Great Britain pertaining to the Virginia
Company or to the colony under the authority of the company. It thus possesses
reproductions of all of the Virginia material in the British Museum, the Privy Council
office, the Bodleian Library, and the Magdalene College Library, Cambridge. In the
Public Record Office all docquet notices on Virginia, all records of suits in chancery
and the admiralty pertaining to Virginia, and the quo warranto in the King's Bench,
by which the company was dissolved, as well as the most important documents and
correspondence, have been transcribed or photographed for the Library of Congress,
but the correspondence of the planters, the less important correspondence of the
company, and mere memoranda are yet to be transcribed. The latter material is
fairly outlined in the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574 to 1660, and in
the Appendix of the eighth report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts,
or is printed elsewhere in full.[123]

The collection of publications by the company belonging to the Library of
Congress is fairly good. It contains twelve of those which were issued before 1616,
but of the later books it has only three. The Declaration of 1620, the Declaration
by Waterhouse in 1622, and John Donne's Sermon of the same year, in addition to
Smith's General History, are the only ones of the eighteen now extant which are in
the Library.