Page:The records of the Virginia company of London - Volume 1.djvu/16

6 the text as we now possess it. Miss Kingsbury, by her use of the Ferrar papers, has Leen able to establish by the clearest proof the connection of Nicholas Ferrar with the transcription, and in many other ways she has added definiteness to the accounts usually given of the origin and preservation of the record as we now possess it. The transfer of the copy of the Court Book to Virginia and its transmission from hand to hand till, through the medium of Thomas Jefferson's library, it finally passed into the possession of Congress fittingly concludes the remarkable history of the preservation of this manuscript.

The high estimate which has been placed on its value is evidenced not only by the use that has been made of it by historians, but by the long-continued efforts which have been made to secure its publication. In 1858 Mr. J. Wingate Thornton, in an article in the "Historical Magazine," explained the nature of the Court Book, told how it had been preserved, and insisted upon the importance of its being published. "As these volumes are of national rather than of local interest," said he, "reaching back to the very foundation of the English companies for colonizing America; as they have escaped the chances and mishaps of two centuries, on either side of the Atlantic, … and as Providence has now placed them in the keeping of our National Congress, is it not our national duty to have them appropriately edited and published?" The following year Mr. Thornton published a pamphlet in Boston, in which he outlined the history of the manuscript and again raised the question of its publication. But soon the Civil War came on, and plans of that kind, especially so far as they related to southern history, had to be postponed.

But in 1868, three years after the close of the war, Mr. Edward D. Neill presented a memorial to Congress, in which he dwelt on the neglect by historians of these most valuable manuscripts. He stated that, while preparing his book entitled "Terra Mariae," he had familiarized himself with the chirography of the records. He now offered to undertake their editing without compensation, if he might be furnished with two copyists for a limited time and be allowed a small sum for stationery and contingent expenses. But this offer met with no response, and Mr. Neill was forced to content himself with the publication of extracts from the manuscript in his "History of the Virginia Company of London" (Albany, 1869).

In March, 1877, Mr. Robert A. Brock, of the Virginia Historical Society, published in the "Richmond Daily Dispatch" a "Plea for the Publication of the Records of the Virginia Company." In 1881 Senator John W. Johnston, of Virginia, introduced into Congress a bill which was intended to provide for the publication of the records. This passed the Senate, but failed in the House.

During three successive sessions between the years 1885 and 1888 Dr. J. Franklin Jameson applied to the Library Committee of Congress for perniission to edit and publish the records without expense to the Government. His plan was to obtain a sufficient number of subscribers to justify the issue of the volumes by a private firm and to meet the cost of the sale. Another suggestion which he also made was the uppointment of a commission which should concern itself with the publishing of