Maryland Laws Printed in Philadelphia and London

nitude in that day and place as to convince one that the colonial Mary-
landers regarded the correct transcription of their records as an undertak-
ing of importance. In the year 1718 Jones petitioned, unsuccessfully it
seems, for the privilege of carrying the mails, and except for the very im-
portant service to the colony which is now to be described, little is heard
of this busy and intelligent public servant until his death in the month of
June I722.¹

THE JONES-BRADFORD EDITION OF THE LAWS, PHILADELPHIA, 1718

It was doubtless while Jones was engaged in the tedious employment of
transcribing the records of the Province that there occurred to him the idea
of the project which it is now time to take account of. On May 9, 1718, he
proposed to the Upper House that he be allowed to print the body of pro-
vincial law, and their Honours approved the petition and sent it down to
the delegates with the following endorsement:

"The within proposall is recommended to the Lower House of Assembly as reasonable
in the Charge and usefull in the Work & to oblige the said Evan Jones to print them upon
good Paper and with a fair Letter."²

When this endorsement was read in the Lower House, Thomas Bordley
and John Beale immediately offered

"..... to make a Compleat Colleccon of all the Laws ..... in force in an entire Body and to
make a perfect Index and proper Marginall Notes throughout the whole for Fifty Pounds."³

Further than this the journal is silent. Thomas Bordley was a leader of
the House in the contention as to the force of the English statutes in the
American colonies, and as the struggle between the delegates and the Pro-
prietary interests was now becoming close after years of relative peace on
this subject, Bordley was allowing to pass few chances to annoy the gentle-
men of the Upper Chamber. As Evan Jones held with the Lower House in
this contention, one is baffled to determine whether in the present instance
Bordley's action was a part of his general strategy, or whether he had in
view merely the editorial preparation of the copy for Jones's publication.
Whatever may be the true interpretation of the incident, however, 51 forms

of 7tber Ano dm 1716 aged two years. (Five lines of Welsh)." See Riley, E. S., Ancient City, p. 76. Evan Jones
was a vestryman of St. Anne's Parish from 1709 to 1716. See The Endowment Guild of St. Anne's Parish, by John
Wirt Randall, Annapolis, 1909, and Allen, Ethan, Historical Notices of St. Ann's Parish. Baltimore, 1857.

¹ "Births, Marriages and Deaths," in "Parish Register," St. Anne's Parish, Anne Arundel County. Copy in
Maryland Historical Society. The foregoing facts relating to Evan Jones's connection with the Provincial govern-
ment are to be found in the Lower House journals for the years named.

²L. H. J., May 9, 1718, Archives of Maryland, 33: 271. It is possible that this petition had been introduced
originally in the Lower House and passed upon there and that this entry indicates simply the concurrence of the
Upper House. Neither clerk seems to have made a complete entry of the transaction.

³L. H. J., May 9, 1718, Archives of Maryland, 33: 272.

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