Apr 15, 2021 - Sale 2564

Sale 2564 - Lot 238

Price Realized: $ 469
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
(LAW.) The Charter Granted . . . of Massachusetts-Bay / Acts and Laws of . . . Massachusetts-Bay, bound with 18 later addenda of the colony's acts and laws, complete through May 1721. [2], 13, vi, [2], 350 pages. Folio, contemporary calf, worn, boards detached, tape repairs; front free endpaper and first title page detached and worn, third contents leaf defective, final 1721 addendum defective, otherwise moderate wear and dampstaining, a few early manuscript notes; early owner's inscriptions on endpapers, later signature and note on title page. Boston: B. Green, 1714-21

Additional Details

A compilation of the acts and laws passed in Massachusetts from 1692 through 1721. The "Act against Adultery and Polygamie" on page 57 mandates that offending parties wear "a Capital A of two inches long . . . of a contrary Colour to their Cloaths," though the color scarlet is not mandated. An act restricting the manumission of slaves appears on page 178, and the "penalty for a Negro or Molatto Man committing Fornication with a Christian Woman" appears on page 190. Evans 1686 (the main work, through page 239). Cushing, Massachusetts Laws, 292, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 308, 309, 311, 312, 314, 318, 319.