I've often wondered about this -- why are VA, PA, MA, and KY commonwealths and the rest of the states of the union are states?
I'm assuming KY inherited its commonwealth-ness from VA.

I was looking at the early laws of Virginia -- the titles go from "In the 12th year of King George III" to "Interregnum" -- in 1775 -- well before the actual death of George III -- but surely after the battles of Lexington and Concord -- to "In the first year of the commonwealth."  So the laws of Virginia actually predate statehood.  

Maybe Maryland's laws predate statehood, but there is no such title at the top of each page...http://www.aomol.net/html/legislative.html

Neither is there a title at the top of each page of North Carolina's laws (see google books -- link is too long).

Joe McCollum 
Information Technology Specialist
Forest Inventory and Analysis
Knoxville, TN  37919




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