University of Virginia Library

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.