BILLS PREPARED FOR THE REVISION OF THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA. MS.

Scope and content:

A committee of five, consisting of Jefferson, Thomas Ludwell Lee, George Mason, Edmund Pendleton, and George Wythe, were appointed by the Virginia Convention of 1776 to draft a revision of the Virginia laws--the genesis of Jefferson's epochal work for religious and intellectual freedom. Lee died, Mason resigned, and the work was divided among the other three. Jefferson prepared the sections on common law and statutes to 4 James I; Wythe prepared the British statutes from that date to 1776; Pendleton worked on laws passed in Virginia. The index is in Jefferson's hand, the ordinances in several other hands, probably of clerks of the committee. Jefferson indexes 126 bills, 66 of which are included in this draft. The bills were printed by Dixon and Holt, Richmond, 1784. [29]

Physical location:

Slipcase, shelved with other slipcases and volumes.

Physical description:

D. 205 pp. Index: AD by T. J. 4 pp.

Access and use