You're absolutely right about the time period in which William Waller
Hening compiled "The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all the
Laws of Virginia," (Richmond, 1809-23), tho his work on the series began
in the mid-1790s. Hening gathered the commonwealth's laws, spanning the
years 1619 to 1792, and printed them in 13 volumes.  For this work,
Hening relied heavily on the legal records and texts gathered by Thomas
Jefferson, as well as TJ's memories of his early legal career. The two
men exchanged more than 50 letters, many of which contain their
discussion of the preparation of this massive work.  Most of these
letters can be viewed by accessing the Library of Congress's collection
of Jefferson papers, and their texts support the following... 

Hening's primary purpose was to provide ready access to the
commonwealth's legal traditions in one source, and given the emphasis,
particularly in the 1790s, on creating an American (Virginian) identity,
it could be possible that Hening (and undoubtedly TJ) saw this huge
undertaking as a way to 'create' an American (Virginian) legal identity
to replace the English one (even though, as has been pointed out, the
sources were almost exclusively English).  Obviously, we cannot deny
that the commonwealth's earliest laws were influenced by the Anglican
Church, but certainly not exclusively, and we definitely should not
think of the "Statutes" as having been specifically compiled for the
purpose of codifying church precedent and 'law.' 

L. Francavilla
Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series
Charlottesville, VA

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Kiracofe
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 4:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 

>I found documents in which those who did not attend church were jailed,
was
>that the Virginia Assembly? This document is dated 1710, when Colonial 
>Virginia was under the Rule of the Anglican and Episcopalian Church. So
why
>would the General Assembly command people to go to church?  Before
there was
>a General Assembly, the Anglican and Episcopalian Churches were the law
in
>Virginia. Sorry, that is the way it was. Slavery could not have
flourshed
>without the approval of the church. Church law was then adopted by the 
>General Assembly, and became the law of the land.  Most historians know
that
>Henings Statutes at Law were a codification of Church law for the
General
>Assembly.

Anita

The short answer here is that, yes, the House of Burgesses WOULD enforce
the Act of Conformity to the Church of England.  Remember that the
Anglican Church was the state church whose head was the monarch and
Virginia was a royal colony  -- attendance, tithing, etc., were
therefore of political significance.

I'm not sure that I agree with your point about Hening's Statutes though
-- he produced that collection well after the Revolution to demonstrate
the historical antecedents for the Commonwealth's legal tradition.

David Kiracofe

David Kiracofe
History Department
MAK 1060
Grand Valley State University
Allendale, MI 49401
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