The particular law Janet refers to below is the first act from the January
1639/40 session.  It is perhaps the earliest "comprehensive" legislation
concerning tobacco because it deals with production quotas, mandated prices,
and quality control -- i.e. inspection.

This law is particularly interesting because you won't find the text of it
in Hening.  1 Hening 224-229, which records this session of the assembly, is
a title-only catalog of the acts which Hening derived from Jefferson's
"Virginia manuscript collection."  In fact it comes from the abstract of
17th century records probably created by Richard Hickman, a clerk in the
Council Office about 1722 and subsequently bound into what is now referred
to as the Bland Manuscript, yet another late 17th or early 18th century
collection of transcripts of 17th century Virginia records.  The Bland
manuscript survives at the Library of Congress -- Thomas Jefferson
Manuscripts, series 8, volume 7.  Although it has never been printed in it's
entirety, it is available on-line at LC, and is really a magnificent piece
of work [ http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mtjhtml/mtjser8.html].  Note, LC has
renumbered the volumes as presented on the web, because one is missing due
to it's condition, with the result that the web lists Bland as volume 6.

We do have the full text of the laws of this session thanks to the work of
Conway Robinson, some-time clerk in the Virginia Supreme Court, lawyer,
legal scholar and one of the founders of the Virginia Historical Society.
In 1829 Robinson discovered a copy of these laws while rummaging around in
the papers of the Virginia Supreme Court, which of course included most of
the books from the colonial Council Office.  Robinson had a transcript made
which he presented to Governor Giles as part of his attempt to get the
Commonwealth to produce a supplement to Hening based on all of the
additional materials in the attic of the Supreme Court Building.
Unfortunately, Giles and the legislature didn't pony up the money and the
project never got off the ground.  And I really need to underscore that
"unfortunately" because these papers were all destroyed in the fire of April
1865 which leveled much of Richmond on the night of the evacuation of Lee's
army.  Virtually all that we know of that lost treasure is a result of
Robinson's various notes made in the late 1820s and early 1830s -- which
like his transcript of the laws of 1639/40 do survive.

The transcript, which is now at the Library of Virginia was published in
it's entirety in the William and Mary Quarterly -- 4W2 (1924),
16-35,145-162.  The tobacco law covers pp 17-31.

John Baughe (sic) is indeed an inspector from Henrico.

Peter V. Bergstrom, PhD
Manager, Information Systems, Lighthouse Institute
Archivist, Illinois Addiction Studies Archive
Chestnut Health Systems
720 W. Chestnut St.
Bloomington, IL

Webmaster  http://www.chestnut.org


-----Original Message-----
From: Janet Hunter [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, 19 June 2003 4:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Tobacco regulation in Colonial Virginia -- 1600s


In a message dated 6/19/2003 1:50:13 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


>  Maybe we need a bumper sticker that reads:
>    "Virginia: Prosperity Based on Government Regulation Since 1722"
>

Hello Jon and all,

I have followed the discussion with much interest and enjoyment, but I would
amend the above bumper sticker to read "since 163X".  I am in California
3,000
miles from all of my files, and the quite fine Long Beach library doesn't
have Swem's,  but in Hening's Statutes volumes in the 1630s (maybe1640s)
there is
a list of "inspectors" to make sure that nobody grows too much tobacco, and
the actual law that was promulgated for this is there in its full glory (and
it
would be dandy if someone could access that).  One of the inspectors is John
Baugh for "Connecocke" in Henrico Co., if memory serves on the spelling.

This is all from memory, but in the citation there is specific reference to
the fact that the "adventurers" (or maybe planters?) need to get a return on
their investment (so they'll be happy and rich because that was what
Virginia
was all about in case any of you settlers forgot!), and , again from memory,
it
seems that back then, only 20 years give or take of settlement, the colonies
had alot of eager beavers entrepreneurs  planting too much tobacco, driving
the
price down, etc.

Anyone who has access to the Virginia Historical Index/Henings can find the
text really quickly!

However, I don't recall if it mentioned suckers or not, just the limitations
on plants themselves.  When I read it the first time I had visions of
perhaps
some of the settlers clearing out a few acres in the forests that nobody
knew
about and getting around the "crop controls" (sort of like the folks that
grow
marijuana in the northwest).

I can't honestly say that I have read all the emails, so if this has been
mentioned I apologize.

With best regards,

Janet (Baugh) Hunter

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