Charters of the Province of Pensilvania and the City of Philadelphia

1742. [FRANKLIN IMPRINT]. (PENNSYLVANIA). The Charters of the Province of Pensilvania and the City of Philadelphia. [bound with:] Collection of All the Laws of the Province of Pennsylvania. [bound with:] An Appendix; Containing a Summary of Such Acts of Assembly as Have Been Formerly in Force within This Province.... Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, 1742 [i.e. 1743]. Three parts bound in one volume. 30;562; iv,24,xi pp. Folio. Near contemporary reverse calf, raised bands. Calf rubbed, worn at corners, early repairs to joints. Two bookplates on front pastedown, early ownership signatures on titlepage (see below). First titlepage and leaf Hh in second title with repaired tears. Occasional tanning. Very good overall. In a morocco-backed cloth clamshell case, spine gilt. Miller 288. Evans 5033. Sabin 59973, 59982. Hildeburn 755a-c. Campbell 237a-c. An important volume of the Charters and Laws of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, printed by Benjamin Franklin, for which he billed the Assembly ?261. The last complete edition of Pennsylvania laws had been printed in 1728 by Andrew Bradford, and the need for a corrected edition led to the appointment in 1739 of Kinsey, Speaker of the Assembly and Attorney General of the Province, to prepare a new edition. Kinsey completed a revised edition in 1741 and turned it over to Franklin, who required two years to complete the job. He finished presswork for the volume in the spring of 1743, the year after the date of imprint. Included are laws on slavery, roads, maritime issues, timber, blasphemy, witchcraft, debt, brandy and ales, Native Americans, and much more. This copy bears an interesting provenance, containing the ownership signature of Benjamin Price on the first titlepage. Benjamin Price was a topographer and antiquarian, who at one point composed a manuscript account of his visit to Quaker settlements in Pennsylvania, New York, and Canada. This copy is also signed by his son, Philip, on the same titlepage, and bears the later bookplates of Charles Cooper Townsend and Ernest Sturm. One of the most extensive and important early Franklin imprints.