“EXCEEDINGLY RARE”: RHODE ISLAND’S COLONIAL 1767 ACTS AND LAWS, WITH THE ROYAL CHARTER OF 1663, ONE OF ONLY 200 COPIES

(RHODE ISLAND). The Charter Granted by His Majesty, King Charles II. To The Governor and Company of The English Colony of Rhode-Island and Providence-Plantations, in New-England, in America. Printed and sold by Samuel Hall, Printer to the Honorable General Assembly, 1767. Folio, period style full speckled brown calf gilt, red morocco spine label, raised bands, marbled endpapers. $4800.

Exceedingly rare 1767 Rhode Island Acts and Laws, one of only 200 copies, printed with the 1663 Royal Charter, and including the extremely scarce 1746 Repeal of the Acts of the General Assembly.

With the 1660 restoration of the British monarch, Roger Williams’s original 1644 charter was threatened by its lack of a royal seal. In 1663, Charles II granted Rhode Island a new charter, distinctively defining it as a corporate colony, with its governor, council and general assembly chosen by the people. The only other such colony was Connecticut, for elsewhere representatives were chosen by British property owners or royal appointment. As such, many Rhode Island citizens believed their charter required only “voluntary allegiance so long as the King’s interest and theirs coincided. When claims of English rights and royal power differed from claims of charter rights, Rhode Islanders insisted that charter rights had equal, not subordinate authority” (McLoughlin, Rhode Island History, 82-3). Further the charter famously granted religious freedom with its statement that “no Person within the said Colony, at any Time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in Question, for any Differences in Opinion in Matters of Religion.” In addition this volume includes the colony’s reaction to the Stamp Act, laws on indentured servitude and polygamy, and one permitting conscientious objector status during war. The 1719 printing is considered the first compilation. In 1730, the second revision was published, and a third appeared in 1745. This is the “exceedingly rare fourth revision of the Rhode Island Laws, of which only 200 copies were printed” (Benedict 450). Without the Table, said to have been published separately; with extremely scarce final leaf on the 1746 Repeal of the Acts of the General Assembly. Benedict 450. Evans 10749. Harvard Law Catalogue II, 459. Sabin 70514. Tower 836. Contemporary owner inscription on title page. Ex-library with faint evidence of stamp removal on two pages.