University of Virginia Library

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Note

In 1906 the Library of Congress published, in two quarto volumes entitled "The
Records of the Virginia Company of London," the text, from the manuscript
in the Library, of the Court Book containing the minutes of that company's meetings,
and of the meetings of its council, from April 28, 1619, to June 7, 1624, together
with an elaborate and learned introduction by Miss Susan Myra Kingsbury, now
professor of social economy in Bryn Mawr College, and a list prepared by her of
additional documents illustrative of the company's history from the date of its
chartering until after its dissolution by the Crown and the consequent conclusion
of its business. These documents, 764 in number, are listed, with bibliographical
references as to their sources, in the section of Miss Kingsbury's first volume
(pp. 119–205) entitled "List of Records." The project of publication formed at the
time when those volumes were issued contemplated the printing, in additional
volumes, of the documents thus listed, or of all those among them that had any
historical significance. Their texts are now to be presented, in two volumes num-
bered III, IV, of The Records of the Virginia Company of London. The texts
have been prepared by Miss Kingsbury with great care and accuracy. The first
273 of the documents arranged for publication are presented in the present volume.
A nearly equal number, completing the series, will be presented in Volume IV, now
in the printer's hands. The two volumes will constitute an addition of great magni-
tude, and of the highest interest, to the materials for the early history of Virginia, and
their preparation, distinctly a labor of love on the part of Miss Kingsbury, places all
future students of that history under a heavy debt of gratitude to their accomplished editor.