Beschreibung:

GEORGIA-FIRST PRINTING] Bound collection of Georgia session laws . [Savannah: James Johnston, 1763-1770]. Cloth-backed tan boards in slipcase and chemise. 10 1/4 x 8 inches (26 x 20 cm); approximately 40 publications, many issued with caption titles only, but including a number of more substantial collections of Acts with integral title-pages, the whole paginated to 469 pp. in an early hand. Light binding wear, those works with title pages generally with the stamp of the Bar Association, several minor restorations (including a marginal repair to the first work in the book), some toning, but generally clean, the bottom margin trimmed close with the loss of several imprints. Bookplate detailing the gift of this collection in 1917 on front pastedown. James Johnston, the proprietor and printer of Georgia's first press, emigrated from Scotland and settled in Georgia in 1761. He was appointed as official printer to the Province on March 4, 1762, with a grant of a hundred pounds a year for four years to establish his workshop, and an exclusive privilege as printer. The first work to emerge from his press was the initial issue of his newspaper, the Georgia Gazette, published April 7, 1763. Twenty-five of the separately published caption titled laws in the first section of the volume were published in this same year, and so are among the very earliest products of the Georgia press (see online Evans). Four more do not appear to be recorded at all, but probably date from that same year. A complete list of the contents of this remarkable volume is available upon request. The final two volumes of acts (1768-69) in this bound collection include an authorization for appointing (and reappointing) Benjamin Franklin to represent the interests of the Province in Great Britain. Those works with full, rather than caption titles, include November, 1761 (to March 1762): Bristol B2402, Shipton & Mooney 41381; November, 1761 (to April 1763): Bristol B2403, Shipton & Mooney 41382; November, 1763: Bristol B2471, Shipton & Mooney 41445; May, 1764: Bristol B2472, Shipton & Mooney 41446; November 1764: Bristol B2576, Shipton & Mooney 41541; October 1765: Bristol B2661, Shipton & Mooney 41617; June 1766: Bristol B2763, Shipton & Mooney 41715; October 1767: Bristol B2884, Shipton & Mooney 41827; November 1768: Bristol B3003, Shipton & Mooney 41935; October 1769: Bristol B3190, Shipton & Mooney 42097. C The New York City Bar Association