included therein (Chapter CX. p. 463) "for the Preservation of Ancient Town Records" An Act for the Preservation of Ancient Town Records. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened: SEC. 1. It shall be the duty of the town clerk, in each town in this State, having manuscript volumes of town records, containing entries of deeds, town votes, wills, or judicial proceedings made prior to the year 1700, to cause copies to be made of all such entries, in a fair and legible hand, to the satisfaction of the State librarian; and to transmit said copies to the State librarian on or before the fourth day of July, 1871, for preservation in the State library. SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the State librarian to procure and furnish to the town clerks of the several towns above referred to, suitable blank-books, substantially bound, in which to make said copies. SEC. 3. As soon as any book containing such copies shall be received and approved by the State librarian, he shall give to the town clerk from whom he shall have received the same an order for such sum as said librarian may deem a reasonable compensation for making said copies; and the comptroller is hereby authorized to approve and allow all orders so given, and also such further accounts as said State librarian may contract in procuring and furnishing the blank-books described in section second; and to draw upon the State treasurer for the payment of the same. Approved July 15th, 1870. In a former letter received from Mr. Hoadly by the President, the writer thus refers to the recent recovery of a valuable manuscript book of laws: In 1859, the laws of the Territory and Dominion of New England were printed for the first time by Mr. Trumbull in the Appendix to the Colonial Records of Connecticut, 1678-1689, pp. 402-436, from the only manuscript then known to exist. Quite recently I have discovered another manuscript which contains those laws, and also the act or order concerning local laws alluded to on page 439 of Mr. Trumbull's volume. This manuscript enables us to supply some deficiencies in the manuscript used by Mr. Trumbull, and to correct the text in several places. Do you think that the Massachusetts Historical Society would like to reprint those laws? The Memoir of the late Rev. N. L. Frothingham, D.D., by Professor HEDGE, was announced as ready for publication, and is here given. |