Grants, Concessions, and Original Constitutions of the Province
Item #80151
LEAMING, Aaron, and SPICER, Jacob. The Grants, Concessions, and Original Constitutions of the Province of New-Jersey: The Acts Passed During the Proprietary Governments, and Other Material Transactions before the Surrender thereof to Queen Anne, the Instrument of Surrender, and Her Formal Acceptance thereof, Lord Cornbury's Commission and Instructions Consequent Thereon. Collected by Some Gentlemen Employed by the General Assembly, and Afterwards Published by Virtue of an Act of the Legislature of the Said Province with Proper Tables Alphabetically Digested, Containing the Principal Matters in the Book. Phila.: Printed by W. Bradford, [1758]. [4],763pp. Folio. Period-style 3/4 calf and marbled boards, gilt-ruled raised spine bands, red morocco spine label. Internally clean, a very good copy. Evans 8205. Hildeburn, A Century of Printing 1596. The Charlemagne Tower Collection of American Colonial Laws 561. Sabin 39527. Benedict, Acts and Laws of the Thirteen Original Colonies and States 270. Felcone, New Jersey Books 156. An important volume of colonial American laws, the third, and scarcest, official compilation fundamental laws, constitutions, and documents for New Jersey, covering from 1663-64 to 1702, with the session laws from 1668 to 1701. "Prior to the middle of the 18th century all of New Jersey's fundamental documents remained in manuscript form only" -- Felcone. "This handsome volume, generally known as Leaming and Spicer's Laws, was prepared under the authority of an act of Assembly passed in 1752, and is the largest work issued from the press of Wm. Bradford."--The Charlemagne Tower Collection. Subscribers were solicited beginning in February 1755; the compilers, chiefly by Samuel Nevill and Samuel Smith, spent almost two years preparing the text. The printing, under the supervision of Leaming and Spicer, took three more years, until it was ready for delivery in May 1758. The subscribers had taken 170 copies, and the editors say, in the Pennsylvania Journal, 11 May 1758, "a number of copies yet remain not subscribed for," and "any person may be supplied" until "the 17th of July next, after which we will not further extend the sale." See Felcone for a detailed ten-page study of this highly important colonial New Jersey book.
Price: $4,000.00