Books and Manuscripts

Iredell, James, and Francois-Xavier Martin
The Public Acts of the General Assembly of North-Carolina…
Newbern (North Carolina): Martin & Ogden, 1804. Two volumes in one. Revised and enlarged edition. 4to. (iv), 501, (1); 226, (16), (1), (1), (227)-272 pp. Three-quarter speckled brown calf over marbled paper-covered boards, black morocco spine label, stamped in gilt; all edges trimmed; edges and gutter of title-page repaired; light edge wear along some text leaves at front and at rear; light toning and foxing to text; small chipping in upper fore-edge of several leaves at center; original front appendix wrapper bound in; contemporary ownership inscription, dated August 19, 1808, at bottom of last page of the appendix; appendix likely supplied from another copy, pp. 253-262 and 263-272 of same stuck together in upper fore-edge. Shaw & Shoemaker 6940 and 6941

A scarce revised and enlarged edition of the collected public acts of North Carolina. Revised and published by Francois-Xavier Martin, who set up as a printer in Newbern in the 1780s, was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1789, and was later appointed Attorney General of the Territory of Orleans. This work builds on the Iredell laws of 1791 and the subsequent supplements. A manuscript note on the last page of text begins, "This Book Belongs to the Superior Court of Law for Perquimans County...." Perquimans County is situated in the northeast part of the state, on Albermarle Sound.