Beschreibung:

MASSACHUSETTS] Acts and laws, of His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New-England . Boston: Samuel Kneeland and Timothy Green, 1742; Together with The Charter Granted by Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary, to the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay in New England. BOUND WITH Acts and Laws, of His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New England. Boston: S. Keeeland [sic], 1759 [but presumably early 1761]. Two volumes, full dark brown pebbled morocco. 11 5/8 x 6 7/8 inches (30 x 17.5 cm): the first work [2], 28, 333, [1] pp., with added separately published session laws continuous to page 493, (this final act printed Boston: 1758); the second volume is [2], 14, 24, [2], 396 pp. , with added separately published session laws to page 560, (this last act printed Boston: 1768). Some wear to bindings, Bar Association stamps, generally sound copies, occasional toning and staining and annotations in various hands, the separately published Act on p. 425-6 of the first volume present in good facsimile. A very strong run of Massachusetts session law over a roughly twenty-five year period, though with a short hiatus between the first and second volume (a few laws were separately published in that interval that are not present). The first volume does not include the Charter, the second does. Based on the latest dates in the 1759 Acts and Laws, despite the title page date it was issued over a year later, as noted by ESTC. The first volume is Evans 5003, with additional laws through Evans 8177; the second work is Evans 8400 on. Pages 535-542 of the second volume are the first Massachusetts edition of the infamous Townshend Acts of 1767 (7 George III, cap. 46), which imposed duties on imports of glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea. Resentment to these Acts, in the form of a circular letter (written by Samuel Adams) sent to the representative bodies of other provinces, led to the forced dissolution of the Massachusetts Assembly in 1768, and ultimately to the events in Massachusetts leading up to the Revolution. This is Evans 10677. C The New York City Bar Association