WILLIAMSBURG — The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has filed a legal notice in The Virginian-Pilot seeking to claim property placed in its care nearly 40 years ago.

According to the notice, which appeared in the Norfolk-based newspaper on Oct. 18 and 25, a copy of The Virginia Gazette from July 8, 1763, and the 1763 cipher book of a Solomon Higgins have been in the foundation’s possession since July 11, 1986. The Gazette is now owned by the company that owns The Pilot and Daily Press.

The material is in Colonial Williamsburg’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, but it’s not clear exactly what historical value they hold.

“The library has a record for the objects that states they were lent for microfilming in 1986, but there is no additional information beyond what is included in the legal

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