PREFACE. THIS Volume contains the remainder of Volume V of the manuscript Records of the Colony of Connecticut, from page 515, covering the period from May, 1726, to the end of May session, 1730; the first 223 pages of Volume VI, continuing the records to the end of May session, 1735; and the Journal of the Governor and Council, from May, 1726, to February, 1727-8, taken from the manuscript referred to in the prefaces to the fifth and sixth printed volumes of this series. In the Appendix is given the judgment of the English Privy Council in the case of Winthrop's appeal, by which the colonial law regulating the descent and distribution of intestate estates was declared void; and which law, notwithstanding great exertions and no little expenditure of money, was not re-established for nearly eighteen years. There will also be found appended, Queries from the Board of Trade, with the Answers thereto, which give some account of the condition of the Colony in 1730. Several leaves toward the latter part of Volume V of the MS. Records are badly frayed, as well as out of their proper order. In this publication the missing words have been supplied from the original bills, or from the Journals of one or the other House. The Council Journal from 1728 to 1770 is not now among our archives, and the editor is unaware of its existence. |