unique manuscript notations:
inside front cover: iron gall ink owner name "[C-] or [ B-] urleys" (?) 2/
1st free endpaper, front, reversed imprint from inside cover manuscript above
2nd front free endpaper, top, manuscript iron gall ink: "Bot at Vendue 23 S " 3/
title page: top right corner, iron gall ink owner initials and shelf no., "EDW [?] H2LL"
inside rear cover manuscript ink "22/"
I. Description:
This groundbreaking official, first edition of The Perpetual Acts of the General Assemblies of His Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia. 1767 of which 200 copies were printed comprises the first convened Nova Scotia Assembly's first Acts, a text that is at once legal history about the first elected, representative government in British Canada and a road map to the mid-18th c. establishment of Halifax and the Province of Nova Scotia as a growing region. 4/ The Perpetual Acts of the General Assemblies of His Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia. 1767, First Edition commences as follows:
"1758. Anno Tricessimo Secundo Regis Georgii II. Cap. I.
At the General Assembly of the Province of Nova Scotia, begun and holden at Halifax, on the Second Day of October, Anno Domini 1758, and in the Thirty Second Year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Second of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c. being being the First General Assembly convened in the said Province." (emphasis added)
The first General Assembly of Nova Scotia convened on October 2, 1758 at Halifax, Nova Scotia, under then Governor Charles Lawrence. The newly elected legislators adopted two kinds of laws: The Perpetual Acts (1758-1766) and The Temporary Acts (1758-1767). The Governor and the General Assembly appointed Jonathan Belcher, first Chief Justice and Lieutenant Governor to annotate the Acts in this first edition with citations to English and British statutes. The Introduction dated May 13, 1767 is printed below. 5/ Printer Robert Fletcher's 1767 first edition of The Perpetual Acts was published to educate the public, merchants, legislators, lawyers and foreign governments about Nova Scotia's first complete set of Province laws and to promote Nova Scotia's prominence as an international and local center of trade and stability.6/
The Perpetual Acts of the First General Assembly set forth the role of Church, State and private individuals in settling the land, whether owned privately or under contract, conducting businesses, farming and trade. These 18th c. first Acts also set forth the role of government to license and oversee schools and schoolmasters, to promote health and set quarantines, fund sewers to drain lands, hire surveyors, maintain highways, roads, bridges and streets within the townships of the Province and oversee other civic matters. Government record keeping is established: records for births, marriages and deaths. Government finance is established in the form of bonds.
International trade is a major topic in these Acts: importation of rum from the British West Indies and spirits from other foreign locales, duties on other imports, limited export of local hides only to Great Britain, export of local fish, enforcement of the duties laws. The Acts set taxes on locally made goods including carriages and wagons. Standards are set for local timber products and for wood barrel making for local manufacture, sale and export.
The Perpetual Acts establish the rules of forming a locally elected Nova Scotia assembly itself: election laws, the number of representatives for the qualifying counties and townships, and expanding representation to those reaching "Fifty families resident" in new settlements. See p. 195. The Nova Scotia legislature understood that its own body would expand in membership from the growth of new counties and towns.
The first Perpetual Acts were born in a highly charged political atmosphere during the period 1758 to 1766. Those years include the local French and Indian War. From 1763 to 1766 the American Colonies, neighbors to the south, were openly challenging the King of Great Britain. Wealthy British Loyalists owned property in both Nova Scotia and Boston. 7/ During and after the American Revolution, Nova Scotia became for some Loyalists their political haven.
This 1767 first edition of The Perpetual Acts is bound in with a set of the Nova Scotia General Assembly's complementary and simultaneous first Temporary Acts 1758-1767. These first Temporary Acts shed light on the social and economic history of Halifax and surrounding settlements and towns. By 1762, the Temporary Acts bear subtle allusions to the political "troubles" in the neighboring British American colonies. As Halifax is settled formally, public funds are authorized by the Nova Scotia assembly to build a Market House, and a Slaughter House to promote farming, food vendors and general nutrition. Towns are officially recognized. Public subsidies are granted for essential improvements, such as roads, bridges and building stone walls.
The Perpetual Acts give special recognition and exception to Nova Scotia's resident Quakers, primarily European businessmen and families who were not members of the official Nova Scotia Church of England. The Quakers represented a financially significant business community. They appear in The Perpetual Acts as the only recognized exceptions to the Province of Nova Scotia's social and religious status quo. There is no specific Act addressing slavery in this text. Slavery is alluded to only indirectly in these Acts, e.g. in a 1762 Act about employers and how to treat their employees and slaves. 8/
The 1762 "Act for regulating Servants" codifies the social spectrum of freemen, servants bound by contract, apprentices from "Great Britain, Ireland or other of his Majesty's dominions", slaves and Indians. The Perpetual Acts create court remedies for a servant whose master fails to grant a discharge for services rendered according to contract of servitude, suggesting a legal remedy in principle for a likely common problem. The Act also governs removal from ships in Nova Scotia harbors of any concealed servant. An alternative reading suggests that persons concealed in ships were of primary concern also for political - abolitionist- or military reasons. See also the 1762 Temporary Act pp. 46-47 pertaining to visitors from other colonies.
Indian-Settler relations are recognized in a circumscribed manner in The Perpetual Acts. A ban on doing business with Indians is included, but an annotation shows the King rejected it. There is an Act "for preventing fraudulent Dealings in Trade with Indians" pertaining to furs and other tangible commerce. 9/ The Perpetual Acts make no reference to land trades. That silence is a very loud backdrop in the Acts that govern quieting title to lands. Of course, the need to quiet title arises because all of the settler lands in Nova Scotia, including the King's land grants to Proprietors, have been taken from indigenous MicMac people. Other long established native claims such as fishing rights, dams and weirs are also treated as nul. The Acts prohibit such constructions if any such interfere with "the natural passage of Fish in their Seasons for Spawning...and may entirely destroy the Salmon, Bas, Shad, Ailwive and Gaspero Fishery; which the new Settlers in general depend on..." at p. 147-148. Thus Indian fishing grounds were themselves deemed prohibited. This Act along with patents from the King to establish new fisheries legalized the permanent removal of native fishermen from their own historic fishing territories and barred competition with Nova Scotia settlers.10/
An Act for Establishing a Militia is timely 18th c. Nova Scotia legislation. A separate Act governs "Actual Service in Time of War, readiness, treason and punishment." Compensation for military service is enumerated. Such Acts address current and anticipated military events on Nova Scotia soil or in the vicinity.
The Perpetual Acts lay the legal cornerstone of Nova Scotia's courts and judiciary, civil and criminal procedures, juries, rules for where and when court sessions are to be held - including Windsor, Onslow and Truro - and legal forms to be used for filing matters with the courts. That The Perpetual Acts include standardized forms suggests that in the absence of a large professional bar, those able to copy and use these forms could fully participate in legal matters and justices could thereby administer the Acts in a consistent and orderly manner. A final legal and commercial note: the Acts include bankruptcy laws. Conducting business in the Province of Nova Scotia was frontier finance and otherwise typical risk taking in international trade, during up/down economic cycles and in distant provinces. The Act allowing court supervised debt resolution acknowledges the government's role in overall financial stability and addressing the prevalence of unfair debt collection practices meted out by creditors on immigrants seeking a better life in Nova Scotia.
The Perpetual Acts of the General Assemblies of His Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia. 1767, First Edition is an essential text for a scholar of early Canadian legal history and early western legal history generally. This rare 18th c. book is also a remarkable template adapted from the King's Laws of Great Britain and England to an immigrant settled, maritime province in North America among a native population of first peoples, investors, British military, numerous immigrant servants and slaves. To appreciate the outlook required in 1758 to create and elect Nova Scotia's first General Assembly and enact the Perpetual and Temporary Acts we need only look to the frustrations of the Massachusetts Colony and the permanent fracture of relations with the King of England in electing a radically independent legislature. Nova Scotia's initial 18th c. Assembly is the first peaceful political step in a continuous legal process to an ultimately independent Canada.
II. Notes:
1. Tremaine, Marie, Bibliography of Canadian Imprints, 1952, updated 1999. see No.111 and No. 114.
No. 111 is the first edition of The Perpetual Acts of Nova Scotia. 1767 with the Errata sheet following p. 206. Tremaine cites the 1767 edition of The Temporary Acts bound in with No. 111 as No. 114. She cites the printer's note that purchasers of No. 111 could also add No. 114 to their set. For different bound editions, see American Antiquarian Society three holdings: a 1767 first edition of The Perpetual Acts paginated as No.111; a second, Gen'l Assembly May 28, 1765-Oct.17, 1767, pp. 213-217; and a third, Gen'l Assembly May 28, 1765-July 1, 1767. There is a much later 1784 edition of The Perpetual Acts. see also, Internet Archive #423 - N.S. laws, 1758-1765 - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library (microfiche) cited as "Nova Scotia n.s., 1766 (?)" compilation of various acts in the collection of the University of Alberta, "published according to law July 5, 1766". See, Shirley Elliott, Canadian Parliamentary Review - Article a comprehensive discussion of early Nova Scotia legal printing, The Perpetual Acts and The Temporary Acts.
2. Observed under a blue light, this manuscript surname somewhat obscured by the pasted over bookplate may be "Burleys", a name found at a later date in the Nova Scotia census for Lunenburg. Removal of the bookplate is needed. Alternatively, the surname might begin with "C". The title page manuscript ownership initials differ and include a library shelf reference.
3. Concerning the 18th c. phrase "bot at vendue" please see below two examples of 18th c. use of this term. The first is from Benjamin Chew's Receipt book from 1770. By coincidence, Chew was a jurist (1722-1810) who lived in Pennsylvania where he was first appointed Chief Justice of the Province of Pennsylvania. After the American Revolution he sat on the bench as President of the High Court of Errors and Appeals. Benjamin Chew receipt book - benjamin_chew_receipt_book-1.pdf He too bought at vendue. His receipt book contains an entry: Reced March 19th 1770 of B. Chew Seven Pounds 13/6 for goods bought at Vendue. See, John Lort,...ftnt 15. "The City Vendue Store run by Thomas Lawrence, Jr. (1720-1775) located on Front Street opposite Judah Foulks." See also for the role of the vendue as a shopping locale, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, p. 138, Whitefield J. Bell Jr. Addenda to Watson's Annals of Philadelphia: Notes by Jacob Mordecai, 1836 - addenda-to-watson-s-annals-of-philadelphia-notes-by-jacob-3xt2wlqjf3.pdf In1836, Jacob Mordecai with his two grown sons visited Philadelphia, his first home in 18th c. America as a young man. With his grown sons, Mordechai walks the streets. He compares the shops and buildings in 1836 to what he remembers at those locations as a young man in 18th c. Philadelphia. Mordecai describes the same Vendue on Front Street, Philadelphia named in Benjamin Chew's Receipt Book. "It was a general custom for wives & widows to attend at auction stores, then called vendues, and purchase goods for their shop supplies. Benches were placed in rows in front of the vendue shelves. There a preference was always given to female purchasers, to occupy the front seats. Goods were passed along, every body being seated. In busy seasons vendues were held morning & after- noons. The city Vendue Master was Thomas Lawrence;...The Vendue Store [was] in Front Street next door to William Sansom's. There was but one City Vendue.... In the Southern Liberties but one is remembered, on Front below Spruce Street."
4. Halifax Art & Artists | Historical Overview | Art Canada Institute describing Mikmak settlement and Halifax; see also, Canadian Parliamentary Review - Article Shirley Elliott, Canadian Parliamentary Review, pertaining to history of provincial elective government and early Canadian printing. "The best example of Fletcher's printing is found in a consolidation of the Perpetual Acts, which appeared in 1767, the first revised edition of Nova Scotia laws, indeed the first in Canada. For this revision Fletcher was paid 180 pounds for two hundred copies, of which at least twenty exist today." (emphasis added)
5. Please see Introduction, full text below naming all contributors to this first edition.
6. Ironically, the Acts themselves deem notice of publication to be satisfied by a single public reading on the Parade followed by the beat of a drum. CAP. XXII., at p. 57, "...publick Reading any Law of this Province,...on the Parade of Halifax, after Notice by beat of a Drum, shall be deemed a sufficient Publication thereof...."
7. Charles Apthorp, wealthy Loyalist Boston merchant and land owner, had government business and land ownership in Nova Scotia. His Boston land was confiscated in 1781.
8. See The Perpetual Acts of Nova Scotia,First edition pp.126-127. See also, Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, 1896-1898: The Slave in Canada - F90N85-SlaveInCanada.pdf and
Canadian Ethnography Series Vol.2, From American Slaves to Nova Scotian Subjects, Harvey Amani Whitefield, ed., Pearson Prentiss Hall, Toronto, Canada 2005 whitfield_nova_scotia.pdf
9. see note 4. above.
10. In Newfoundland, Charles Skeffington, a Quaker established the first provincial commercial salmon fishery as early as 1705 by British royal patent until 1720.
The British Royal patent to set up and expand his commercial salmon fishery erased native fishing rights and displaced those fishermen who had no legal remedy.
III. Bibliography:
Tremaine, Marie, Bibliography of Canadian Imprints 1751-1800.
University of Toronto Press, 1952, updated 1999
Elliott, Shirley, Canadian Parliamentary Review, Government Printing in Canada prior to 1800. (vol 4, no. 3, autumn 1981).
IV. Selections: Perpetual Acts of Nova Scotia 1767
Title page: large printed seal of Great Britain of Lion, Unicorn, Crown and Seal "Honi Soit Mal Y Pense, Dieu Et Mon Droit"
Dedication page: "To His Excellency The Right and Honorable Lord William Campbell, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over His Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia, and the Territories thereon depending, This EDITION of the Laws of the Province of NOVA SCOTIA, presented by your Lordship's Patronage, is most humbly inscribed, with all due Respect, By Your Lordship's Most Devoted, and Most obedient Servant, Jonathan Belcher."
Introduction: "Halifax, the 13th day of May, 1767.
This Edition of the Laws of the Province, as prepared and collated with the Records by John Dupont Esq; with the Revisal and Marginal References to Acts of Parliament and Authorities in Law, by Mr. Chief Justice Belcher, was begun by Order of the General Assembly, on the Special Recommendation of the Honorable Lieutenant Governor Franklin, and continued and perfected with the Approbation, and by Order of His Excellency the Governor, the Right Honorable Lord William Campbell. Richard Bulkeley, Secretary of the Province."
Legal Tables:
A Table of Titles of the Perpetual Acts of Nova Scotia. Anno.32 Geo II.
-listed in chronological order, with separate headings for Geo. II and Geo. III
-A Table of the Respective Titles of the Perpetual Acts of Nova Scotia, Alphabetically ranged under general Heads, referring to the Pages where the Acts are contained.
-A Table of such English and British Statutes as have been enacted in Nova Scotia.
-A Table of such of the Nova Scotia Acts of Assembly as have been enacted from English and British Statutes.
-A Table of the Principal Matters contained in the Perpetual Acts of Nova Scotia.
[alphabetical by topic]["C" for "Church" - denomination not included], [Q being uniquely "Quakers"][P for "Papists"] ["I" for "Indians"] ["W" "worship divine]
Acts of the General Assembly: p.1- p.206.
Preamble. Whereas it has been thought necessary by His Majesty's Governors and Council of the Province, before the calling a General Assembly, to lay a Duty of Three Pence a Gallon upon all Rum and other distilled Spirituous Liquors imported into this Province, excepting the Product and Manufacture of Great Britain, or of His Majesty's West India Plantations, imported directly from thence; which Import Duty enabled them to grant Bounties and Premiums from time to time, for clearing and fencing of Lands, catching and curing Codfish, and other necessary Encouragements to Labour and Industry: ....
"As the Clauses of Confirmation must, in their Nature, have a perpetual Effect, they are therefore herein inserted: The Remainder of the Act was Temporary."
ACTS. Certain Selections, George II (1758-1760)
-Recording of deeds, quieting title and other acts regarding a rational system of land ownership, use and transfer including probate and inheritance.
-Establishing the rules of the Market
-Erecting a House of Corrections
-Definitions of Criminal Acts
-An Act for establishing the rate of Spanish Dollars and Interest on Money
-An Act for erecting a Light House at the Entrance of Harbour of Halifax
-An Act for the quieting of Possessions to the Protestant Grantees of the Lands formerly occupied by the French Inhabitants, and for preventing vexatious Actions relating to the same.
-An ACT for permitting Persons of the Posession of the People called Quakers, to make an Affirmation instead of taking an Oath...."I A.B. do solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm:" - status as a Quaker for at least one year past. And no Quaker may give evidence in any criminal "Causes" with such oath. p.81
-An Act for the Establishment of Religious Public Worship...and for Suppressing of Popery. p.82
-An Act for erecting a Market House within the Town of Halifax.
-An Act to prevent the importing disabled, infirm, and other useless Persons into the Province, p. 85
-an Act for the better and more effectual Establishment of the Church of England in this Province,
-an Act for the Relief of the poor, p. 91
-an Act to prevent any private Trade or Commerce with the Indians, p. 91
-An Act for Regulating Petit Juries, and declaring the Qualification of Jurors, p. 87
-Acts for the settling of lands, quieting title, building sewers to drain swamps in the Bay of Fundy, rivers, bays and creeks. p. 100-102
- an Act to prevent the spreading of contagious Distempers p.113
ACTS. Certain selections. George George III (1761-1766)
The General Assembly is held on July 1, 1761 "being the First Session of the Third General Assembly convened in said Province."
-Blue Laws
The first act is "An Act for the better observation and keeping of the Lord's Day." "... all Persons may, on the Lord's Day, apply themselves to Duties of Religion and Piety, both publickly and privately" and requires shops to be closed, not otherwise allow anyone to make sales of goods or merchandise, but the perishables Milk and Fresh Fish, "before the Hour of Nine of the Clock in the Morning, and after Five of the Clock in the Afternoon on the said Day." At p. 107.
-Slavery and Day Labourers
At page 126-127, 1762 CAP.I, An Act for the regulating Innholders, Tavernkeepers and Retailers of Spirituous Liquors, may only charge up to Five Shillings and have no recourse for unpaid bills of a soldier, sailor, servant, or Day Labourer,
Apprentice, bound Servant, or Negro Slave or other Person whosoever, or the Masters of Mistresses of such shall be subject to a fine. And further, sellers of these liquors cannot sell to such persons so that they might "sit drinking in his or her House...without special allowance of their respective Masters or Mistresses" on pain of forfeiting any money collected.
At page 129, an Act for preventing fraudulent Dealings in Trade with the Indians.
-regulating the Militia 1762
at p. 135 "An Act for the better regulating the Militia, on actual Service in Time of War."
-Acts Passed in 1763
at p. 152. "An Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors."
-Acts Passed 1765,
at p. 179 "An Act for the Choice of Town Officers and regulating of Townships."
-Acts Passed 1766,
at p. 198 "An Act for extending an Act made and passed in the Thirty Second Year of His late Majesty's Reign, intitled An Act for preventing Persons leaving the Province without a Pass."
- See p. 206 October 23, 1766. Being the third session of the fourth General Assembly.
ERRATA. sheet
_____________________________________________________________________
The Temporary Acts of the General Assemblies of His Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia. printed and sold by Robert Fletcher. M.DCC.LXVII.
p.1 the General Assembly begun and holden on the Second day of October 1758, being the First General Assembly convened in said Province.
Headings: Cap.I - X., continuing 1759, 1760,1761, 1762, 1763, 1764, 1765, 1766, 1767
highlights:
-pp.2-10 primarily concerned with import duties, distilling spirits, taxes on spirits, confirming the courts and unlicensed houses (pubs, bars, selling of spirits)
-p.11 "An Act to prohibit for a limited Time, the Exportation of Warlike Stores."
p.12 "An Act for the Summary Trials of Actions."
p. 14, "...a Duty on Billiard Tables and Shuffle Boards."
p.19, concerned with barring enforcement of foreign debts on persons unless for goods imported into the Province of Nova Scotia continued from Acts of 1749, "as Numbers of unfortunate honest Persons , who under the Encouragement of the Protection afforded them by the Said Acts, did repair to the Province, have become useful members of the Community, and by their Industry have been enabled to discharge their former Obligations to their Creditors, ... and barring dishonest persons from seeking asylum in the Province.", applicable to persons coming into the Province prior to 1762 and continuing for three years.
p. 21, Courts, setting time and places for the Several Counties court of common pleas
p. 23, Courts, evidence, rules for summary trials, jury role
p.31, Courts, Forms of Writs, the Court manner of issuing writs and forms for Capies empowering the Sheriff to arrest
p. 34, Courts, satisfaction of debts and seizure of property to be sold to satisfy debt
pp.34-42, Courts process and forms
p.46-47 - Affect of "Persons coming from the Neighbouring Colonies as Passengers and Traders..." pertaining to goods not declared and duties not paid, court proceedings, ejectment and goods seized, used perhaps as a pretext to board ships
1765 - being the First Session of the Fourth General Assembly convened in the said Province.
1766 - "...holden at Halifax, on the Twenty Eighth Day of May, Anno Domini 1765....until the Third Day of June, Anno Domini 1766...being the Second Session of the Fourth General Assembly convened in the said Province."
1766-"At the General Assembly of the Province of Nova Scotia, begun and holden at Halifax, on the Twenty-Eight Day of May, Anno Domini 1765....and there continued by several Prorogations until the Twenty Third Day of October, Anno Domini 1766,...being the Third Session of the Fourth General Assembly convened in the said Province."
1767 - "At the General Assembly of the Province of Nova Scotia, begun and holden at Halifax, on the Twenty Eight Day of May, Anno Domini 1765, and in the Fifth Year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord George the Third, of Great Britain,....and there continued by prorogation until the Seventh Day of October, Anno Domini 1767, in the Seventh Year of His said Majesty's Reign, being the Fifth Session of the Fourth General Assembly convened in the said Province."
End of book.