Pennsylvania | A collection of early Pennsylvania charters and acts, printed by Franklin

[Pennsylvania]

A Collection of Charters and other Publick Acts. Philadelphia, Printed and sold by B. Franklin, 1740

Folio (303 x 186 mm). Typographic ornaments; light toning and dust-soiling, occasional spots and stains, a few creases, a thin area of loss at the head of leaf C2 touching a few letters on the top two lines of text. Nineteenth-century green straight-grain morroco, gilt, with original blue paper wrapper bound in; a few spots of rubbing and wear at corners and spine, soiling and wear to the original wrappers. Hald red morocco slipcase, chemise.

First edition of this compilation of important early Pennsylvania legal documents, printed by Benjamin Franklin.

Five of the eight charters and acts appear here for the first time here, including the Royal Charter to William Penn, the Act of Settlement made at Chester in 1682, and the Charter of the the City of Philadelphia. Franklin would go on to reprint some of these documents as an introduction to his 1742 collection of the laws of Pennsylvania.

This book belonged to Stephen Onion, master of the Principio Iron Works, the first ironworks in the state of Maryland. Franklin met Onion while on his first voyage to London in 1724, recalling in his autobiography that Onion was one of a group of gentlemen who had engaged the ship's 'great cabin.' Once they became aware of Franklin's presence onboard, the gentlemen invited Franklin to join them in their cabin. There is a second inscription by Edward Fell, who acknowledges having borrowed the book from Onion in 1741. Fell owned a weaving business in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

While there are a handful of copies in institutional collections, this work is rarely seen at auction, with only two copies sold at auction in the last seventy-five years, per Rare Book Hub.

REFERENCES

Miller 203; ESTC W20044; Evans 4583; Sabin 59983

PROVENANCE

Stephen Onion (signature on title) — Edward Fell (inscription acknowledging the loan of the book from Onion, dated 1741) — Emma [illegible, but possibly Spence] (signature on title)