Description:

QUEEN ANNE IS TO REPEAL WILLIAM PENN'S LAWS
Important, historic (partial?) manuscript document, 2pp. 9.5 x 15 in., 'Court of St. James', Feb. 7, 1705, an original primary or more likely retained copy of a document prepared in the name of ANNE (1665–1714) Queen of Great Britain, calling upon the Queen for the 'disallowing and repealing' of about 104 acts and laws passed and certified by WILLIAM PENN in the years 1700 and 1701. The document opens with a list of the names of Queen Anne's councilors, among them the Archbishop of Canterbury, who advised her upon this decree. It continues: '...Whereas by Lettrs Patent granted by his late Maj'ty King Charles the Second to William Penn Esq...said William Penn is impowered with the advice of the Freemen of that Province...to enact Lawes for the good Governm't of the said Province, under a Proviso that such Lawes be not repugnant or contrary to...the Lawes of England...a Transcript or Duplicate of all such Lawes, be within five Years...delivered [to the Queen]...[may] be declared by her Maj'ty to ve void, otherwise to remain in full Force, And the Lords Comm'rs for Trade and Plantations having this day laid before her Maj'ty in Council a Collection of Lawes which they had received from Mr. Penn...w'ch he hath certified to be signed and pass'd by him...as followeth...All which Lawes have been perused and duly considered by ye said Commissioners for Trade and Plantations together with the opinion of her Majesties [sic] Attorney General...in point of law...they find divers Reasons for her Maj'ty's disallowing and repealing those La[ws] following...'. There follows a list over two pages of more than fifty laws and acts which the commissioners, and presumably Queen Anne as well, seek to repeal. These include: 'The Law concerning Liberty of Conscience...An Act against Adultery and Fornication...An Act against...Counterfeiting...An Act against firing of Houses...An Act limiting the Preventments of the Grand Jury...An Act for Naturalization...An Act for the Tryal of Negroes...An Act about Departers out of this Province...The Law about false Imprisonment...The Law for the Confirmation of the Lawes of this Government...An Act of Privileges to a Freeman...The Law about the Manner of Giving Evidence...The Law about false Imprisonm't...' and many more. On the second page, a note is made of a court session held in Philadelphia on August 31, 1706 in which Lt. Gov. John Evans, Edward Shippen, and six others acknowledge that in all, 151 laws were presented to Queen Anne: '...who has been pleased to repeal fifty of the said Lawes, and declared them to be void and of no Effect...'. In rather poor condition, with old repairs tying together splits with some substantial loss thereat, now stabilized and loosely encapsulated in mylar. A historic document documenting one of the earliest efforts by the British Crown to regulate and restrict laws within the Colonies.

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August 15, 2024 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

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