Difference between revisions of "Acts Passed at a General Assembly"

Latest revision as of 15:39, 25 April 2025

Session Laws
Title not held by The Wolf Law Library at the College of William & Mary.
Author	Virginia
Editor
Translator
Published	:
Date	1776-1783
Edition
Language
Volumes	volume set
Pages
Desc.

Prior to the American Revolution, as a member of the House of Burgesses (and sometime, Clerk of the House), Wythe would have owned printed copies of the records of every session of the House of Burgesses. Later, as a member of Virginia's House of Delegates and a Chancery Court judge, he would have owned printed copies of Virginia's session laws: the Acts of Assembly. Session laws were published individually in Wythe's time in pamphlets of ten to fifty pages, and then later published as such collections as A Collection of All the Acts of Assembly, Now in Force, in the Colony of Virginia (1733), or A Collection of All Such Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia (1803).

Detail from page six of Thomas Jefferson's inventory of books received from the estate of George Wythe (September, 1806), listing "Laws of Virginia, various editions." Massachusetts Historical Society.

In the list of books he inherited after Wythe's death in 1806, Thomas Jefferson made an entry in his inventory for "Laws of Virgā. various edns." It is not clear from Jefferson's note if Wythe's copies of the printed laws were bound in one or more volumes, or if they consisted of individual pamphlets. As Jefferson himself kept an extensive collection of Virginia laws, many of these printings would have been duplicates and some may have passed to the state law library, and eventually incorporated into the Library of Virginia.

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Earl Gregg Swem's "Bibliography of Virginia, Part II" (1917) lists a bound volume of session laws from 1776-1783 in the Library of Virginia, which formerly belonged to the state law library, "with the name of George Wythe on the fly leaf."^[1] Since Swem's inventory of the copy in 1917, however, the volume was dis-bound, and the individual sessions restored and cataloged.^[2] Three sets of the printed Acts contain signatures and notes with Wythe provenance: those for October, 1776; May, 1779; and May, 1780.

1776-1783

George Wythe's copy of Acts Passed at a General Assembly (1780). From the collection of the Library of Virginia.

• At a General Assembly, Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg, on Monday, the Seventh Day of October, in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Six, and in the First Year of the Commonwealth (Williamsburg: Alexander Purdie, 1777). With "G. Wythe" on the front flyleaf.^[3] Swem 7003

• At a General Assembly Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg, on Monday, the Fifth Day of May, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seven, and in the First Year of the Commonwealth (Williamsburg: Alexander Purdie, 1777). Swem 7048

• At a General Assembly, Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg, on Monday, the Twentieth Day of October, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seven, and in the Second Year of the Commonwealth (Williamsburg: Alexander Purdie, 1770). Swem 7080

• At a General Assembly Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg, on Monday, the Fourth Day of May, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Eight (Williamsburg: Alexander Purdie, 1778). Swem 7094

• Acts Passed at a General Assembly, Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg, on Monday, the Third Day of May, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Nine (Williamsburg: John Dixon & Thomas Nicolson, 1779). With Wythe's signature and a "GW" on the title page.^[4] Swem 7128

• Acts Passed at a General Assembly, Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg, on Monday, the Fourth Day of October, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Nine (Williamsburg: John Dixon & Thomas Nicolson, 1779) Swem 7166

• Acts Passed at a General Assembly, Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond, on Monday, the First Day of May, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty (Richmond: John Dixon & Thomas Nicolson, 1780). With Wythe's signature on the title page.^[5] Swem 7223

• Acts Passed at a General Assembly, Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond, on Monday, the Sixteenth Day of October, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty (Richmond: John Dixon & Thomas Nicolson, 1781). Swem 7240

• Acts Passed at a General Assembly, Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond, on Thursday the 1st Day of March, in the Year of Our Lord, 1781 (Richmond: John Dixon & Thomas Nicolson, 1781).^[6] Swem 7263

• Acts Passed at a General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Begun and Held at the Public Buildings in the Town of Richmond, on Monday the Seventh Day of May, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-One, and from Thence Continued by Adjournment to the Town of Staunton, in the County of Augusta (Charlottesville: John Dunlap and James Hayes, 1781). Swem 7285

• Acts Passed at a General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Begun and Held at the Public Buildings in the Town of Richmond, on Monday the Fifth Day of November, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-One (Richmond: John Dunlap & James Hayes, 1781). Swem 7310

• Acts Passed at a General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Begun and Held at the Public Buildings in the Town of Richmond, on Monday the Sixth Day of May, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-Two (Richmond: John Dunlap & James Hayes, 1782). Swem 7320

• Acts Passed at a General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia Begun and Held at the Public Buildings in the City of Richmond, on Monday the Twenty-First Day of October, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-Two (Richmond: John Dunlap & James Hayes, 1783. Swem 7338

• Acts Passed at a General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Begun and Held at the Public Buildings in the City of Richmond, on Monday the Fifth Day of May, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-Three (Richmond: John Dunlap & James Hayes, 1783). Swem 7350

• Acts Passed at a General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Begun and Held at the Public Buildings in the City of Richmond, on Monday the Twentieth Day of October, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-Three (Richmond: John Dunlap & James Hayes, 1783). Swem 7377

See also

• The Acts of Assembly, Now in Force, in the Colony of Virginia (1752)
• The Acts of Assembly, Now in Force, in the Colony of Virginia (1769)
• A Collection of All Such Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia (1803)
• A Collection of All Such Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia (1794)
• A Collection of All Such Public Acts of the General Assembly, and Ordinances of the Conventions of Virginia (1785)
• A Collection of All the Acts of Assembly Now in Force in the Colony of Virginia (1733)
• Jefferson Inventory
• Thomas Jefferson to Wythe, 16 January 1796 (Madison Draft with List of Virginia Laws)
• Wythe's Library

References

1. ↑ Earl G. Swem, "A Bibliography of Virginia, Part II, Containing the Titles of the Printed Official Documents of the Commonwealth, 1776-1916," Bulletin Virginia State Library 10, nos. 1-4 (January, April, July, October, 1917).
2. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012), 235-236. Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available online at the Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center.
3. ↑ Library of Virginia Special Collections, call number K71.1 .V84 1776, Oct.: "Copy 3: 36 cm.; imperfect: p. 1-10 mutilated at lower right corner; flyleaf with autograph of G. Wythe bound in at front; manuscript notes interspersed."
4. ↑ Library of Virginia Special Collections, call number K71.1 .V84 1779, May: "Copy 2: 28 cm.; restored and [02] supplied; p. 57 wanting (replaced by blank leaf when copy was restored); manuscript notes interspersed; table of contents in manuscript on p. [2]-3; autograph of G. Wythe on t.p."
5. ↑ Library of Virginia Special Collections, call number K71.1 .V84 1780, May: "Copy 2: 29 cm.; imperfect: p. 39-40 mutilated; p. 41-46 wanting (replaced by blank leaves); with autograph of G. Wythe on t.p.; manuscript notes interspersed."
6. ↑ A manuscript copy of these acts, in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson, is in the Jefferson Collection at the Library of Congress. At the end, Jefferson wrote: "Collated with the printed acts by" with the autograph signature "G. Wythe," in stipple. E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 2:253 [no. 1855].

External links

• "John Dunlap, Charlottesville’s First Printer," Notes from Under Grounds, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.