University of Virginia Library

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]