Laws and ordinances, ordained and established by the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of New-York, in common council convened; for the Good RULE and GOVERNMENT of the inhabitants and residents of the said city. Passed and Published the first day of May, 1797, in the eighth year of the Mayoralty of Richard Varick, Esquire
New York: Printed by George Forman, 1797. First edition.
Octavo in 4s (8 ½” x 5 1/16”, 217mm x 129mm): A4 B-H4 I2 [$1 signed]. 34 leaves, pp. 1-3 (title, blank, text) 4-67, [1].
Bound in modern quarter dark brown cloth over marbled boards. On the spine, title and date gilt to sheep.
Moderate tanning to the first and last leaves, with a couple of chips. Mild even tanning throughout, with the odd spot of foxing. A tall example, with many preserved deckles along the lower edge and some at the fore.
Between 1790 and 1800 the population of the City of New York (i.e., Manhattan) nearly doubled, from about 32,000 to 61,000, the largest single-decade increase in its history. The pressures of that regulating the exploding population fell largely on the shoulders of Mayor Richard Varick (1753–1831), who had served as private secretary to George Washington during the Revolutionary War, and who is sometimes called “the forgotten Founding Father.” Varick was initially recorder of the city, roughly equivalent to chief counsel, before serving 11 consecutive 1-year terms as mayor, during which time he oversaw the consolidation of laws relating to the city.
The constitution of the state was passed in 1777, and the subsequent decades saw the development of local ordinances emanating from the constitution, particularly in New York City. The present collection follows in the tradition of printing annual collections of new laws that began before Independence and recommenced in 1786 in the mayoralty of James Duane, and from 1793 in Varick’s mayoralty. This second tranche of Varick’s laws includes regulation of Sundays, markets, bread, roads, fire-wood, roving live-stock and general nuisances i.a. In brief, it is a rare (OCLC records only 10 examples of the book in institutional collections) collection of the early regulations that shaped the lives of New Yorkers.
Evans 32562.
Item #JLR0665
Price: $2,500