Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: title varies, 1792–, Lexington & Frankfort, var. state printers, 1792–. ((In the last third
of the 18th Century, the area that is now the State of Kentucky comprised a lightly settled district of the British Royal Colony of Virginia. In the
immediate pre-Revolutionary years a series of treaties with various Indian tribes methodically cleared way for greater white settlement. By the time of
the American Revolution the population of the District of Kentucky had grown sufficiently that it could realistically hope to become a separate
American state. The State of Virginia proved pleasantly cooperative. Via legislation called the “Virginia Compact” it set up the legislative framework for
the transition of the District to statehood and, very importantly given their recent provenance, transferred all Kentucky-related land records to the
new capital of Frankfort. In legislation passed on 4 February 1791 the U.S. Congress consented to the admission of the District as a separate state.
Kentucky’s new constitution carried over the common law as it had existed in Virginia and provided that the general statute laws of Virginia would
remain in effect in the new state unless and until modified by subsequent acts of the Kentucky legislature. In addition the new state adopted the title of
“Commonwealth,” a designation it shares with three other states: Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia. While the term has no legal significance,
it is meant to indicate that the entity has a government based upon the consent of the people, rather than being legitimized through royal charter from
the monarchs of England. The Kentucky legislature began its first session in the town of Lexington, the temporary capital, on 4 June 1792. The town
of Frankfort, the putative capital, got its first post office in 1794, and a governor’s mansion by 1798. The first permanent capitol building in
Frankfort was completed in 1830.) (Documents which are part of the Early State Records collection were digitized from a microfilm copy of titles originally
held by the University of Chicago Library, the Kentucky State Library, the Library of Congress, and the University of Kentucky Library).
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