University of Virginia Library

Contents

                                                                                                     

	Page
NOTE	3
PREFACE	5
INTRODUCTION	11
I. Character of the Virginia Company:
Comparison with earlier movements for discovery	11
Comparison with earlier movements for trade	11
Importance of the Virginia Records	14
II. The Records of the Company under Sir Thomas Smythe:
Organization of the company under the charter of 1606	17
Change in character from 1606 to 1609	21
Classes of records, character and value	23
I. Fundamental documents emanating from the Crown. II. The court books. III.	Documents issued by the company. IV. Letters from the planters and the outline of Argall's register in the colony. V. Publications of the company. VI. Private papers of adventurers. VII. Supplementary contemporary cor- respondence
III. The Collections of Documents, 1616–1624:
General character of the records	39
The Jefferson Library in the Library of Congress	41
The copy of the court book—acquirement by Mr. Jefferson. Manuscript records of the company, Volume III. The "courte booke" of the colony—contents and description
Transcripts of the Virginia Records	48
Randolph copy in the collection of the Virginia Historical Society. Jefferson tran- scripts. Transcripts of documents in England recently acquired by the Library of Congress
Documents in Richmond	54
Manuscripts in the New York Public Library	55
Collections of Americana	55
John Carter Brown Library, New York Public Library, Harvard Library, Private
Transcripts in the New York Public Library	58
Collections in England—Ferrar Papers, Magdalene College, Cambridge	59
History, description, and contents
Collections in England—Public Record Office	61
Manchester papers, history and character. State papers, colonial and domestic Records of courts: Admiralty, chancery, quo warranto, the King's bench. Origin and character
Collections in England—The Privy Council Office	66
Collections in England—British Museum	67
IV. The Records of the Company under the Sandys-Southampton Administration:	Page
Organization of the company—Membership, meetings, officers	71
Methods of procedure—General usage and elections. Rewards	74
Record books provided for by the company	75
The extant records—The court book	78
History of the contemporary copy. Description of the contemporary copy in the Library of Congress. System of keeping the court book. Contents of the court book
The extant supplementary records	87
Documents giving an outline of the activity of the company. Documents revealing the movements for trade and industry. Documents which concern the relation with the colony. Records of the colony. Documents which concern the develop- ment of factions and the recall of the charter. Documents which record the relations between the company and the Crown
Conclusion—Value of the Virginia Records	103
Understanding of the organization and activity of the company. Value in a study of problems of state and of proprietary colonies.
V. The Fate of the Original Records of the Company:
Events leading up to the confiscation of the records by the Privy Council	107
The confiscation of the records, May 22, 1623	108
In charge of the clerk of the Privy Council, May 22–November 7, 1623. In charge of commissioners.
Theories as to the fate of the records	111
Retention by the Privy Council for the successive commissions of 1625, 1631, and 1634. Dissipation among the members of the successive commissions. Private collections which have been searched in vain for these records
Destruction of the records	115
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST OF THE RECORDS OF THE COMPANY	119
TABLE OF EXPLANATIONS	207
THE COURT BOOK, VOLUME I	215
April 28, 1619, to May 8, 1622.

Illustrations

             

I. Certification of Volume I of the Original MS	Front.
II. Writing of Thomas Collette (?)	280
Being page 54 of Volume I of the original MS.
III. Writing of the First Copyist (not identified) with John Ferrar's Notes	344
A record of the Summer Islands' Courts, from the Ferrar Papers.
IV. Writing of the Third Copyist (not identified)	464
Being page 214 of Volume I of the original MS.