Jefferson acknowledged this with an explanation on September 3: “ . . . I am glad to learn from you that the MS. volume D. has been sent also to the librarian. with respect to this volume, I refer you to my letter of Apr. 25. 15. for it’s true history. in that however I omitted to state the date of the laws it contained, to wit, from 1642/3 Mar. 2. to 1661/2 Mar. 23. which you will find confirmed by the list annexed to my letter of Jan. 16. 1795. printed by m ( ^~ r) Wythe, and in my Catalogue pa. 73. printed by Congress. this renders erroneous therefore your caption of all the laws quoted from that volume, to wit, from your 1 ^st. volume pa. 238. to Vol. 2 ^d. Pa: 149-162. it never was the property of m ( ^~ r) Edmund Randolph, nor ever in his hands, until 1784. when he borrowed it out of my library with the other MS. volumes, and omitted to return it with the others. it was a part of Peyton Randolph’s library which I purchased at his death, as stated in that letter, bookcases and all as they stood. this error is of little other consequence than inasmuch as a correct account of the regular transmission of this volume, with the others of it’s suite, from S ^r. John Randolph, with his library, to Peyton Randolph his eldest son, and from his possession at his death, to mine, would by this specific deduction, strengthen confidence in it’s authenticity, and in the literal exactitude which constitutes much of the value of such a collection as yours. you however are the best judge whether such an error is worth a note in your next volume . . . ”

Hening replied on September 9: “. . . I was so well satisfied from your letter of April 25. 15. that the M.S. D. was your property, that I did not hesitate to give it the destination you requested. At the same time I explained the reasons for its detention, after the other volumes had been forwarded. The caption prefixed to the laws, taken from that volume, was warranted by the information which I then possessed.--I am now sensible that it was erroneous.--I shall make a note to that effect in the preface to the next volume I publish; and whenever the early volumes may be republished, I shall mark it, in its proper place . . .”

Hening duly altered his caption. In his first edition of the Statutes at Large (Vol. 1, page 238) it reads: [ From a M.S. belonging to Edmund Randolph, Esq. which was once the property of his grandfather Sir John Randolph . . .]

In the second edition this is changed to read: [ From a MS. received from Edmund Randolph, Esq. which was once the property of Sir John Randolph, who transmitted it to his son Peyton Randolph, Esq. after whose death, it was purchased, with his library, by Thomas Jefferson, Esq. from whom it was borrowed by Edmund Randolph, Esq. ]

It will be noted that in his description of the manuscript to George Wythe, quoted above, written in 1796, Jefferson stated the manuscript to have been purchased by him from the executors of Col. Richard Bland, deceased.

Bound to folio size in tree calf, lettered on the back: Vir Records. Now bound in at the beginning is an index, written in a seventeenth century hand, on 21 leaves folio, measuring 11½ by 3¾ inches. At the end is bound in a slip in the autograph of Thomas Mann Randolph, containing a true copy taken by the subscriber from the acts 1691 in M.S. in possession of Thomas Jefferson, signed by Th: M. Randolph, 12 March 1808, and with a similar written and signed statement by him on the other side of