最新增加的系列:2018年秋季

Statement of Account between Jedidiah Ellis, Sturbridge Blacksmith, and John Coburn. 马萨诸塞州斯特布里奇(1796-1800.

A $60 debit to Ellis’s account appears for “one black man,很可能是科伯恩雇给埃利斯的, as this document postdates the effective legal abolition of slavery in Massachusetts. 这种语言的不确定性, 然而, highlights the particularly precarious legal status of black people at this time, 即使在已经废除奴隶制的州. A subsequent $55 credit is noted on Ellis’s account for a sorrel horse. 科伯恩显然是为了收取剩余款项而提起诉讼, 因为付款收据上有Abner Morgan的签名, 治安法官. 

埃尔顿·“托比”·霍尔的礼物

Statement of Account between John Wentworth and Daniel Webster. [朴茨茅斯，NH]， 1807.

在开始他的政治生涯之前，未来的美国总统.S. Senator Daniel Webster practiced law in Portsmouth, New Hampshire from 1807 until 1813. 他为约翰·温特沃斯服务的费用, 朴茨茅斯的律师和法律作家, 被一组的信用部分抵消了 温特沃斯的完整抗辩系统这是一部关于民事实践和诉讼程序的十卷本著作.

用Robert E. 布鲁克三世

已故查尔斯·雷恩图书馆目录. 纽卡斯尔,1799.

We focus our collecting efforts on law books used by actual working lawyers in England and colonial and early America. Examining library catalogs from those eras (both of institutions and individuals) provides one method for determining what books actually fall into that category. 雷恩, who practiced in the northeastern English town of Newcastle, 收集了大量的病例报告, 论文, 形式的书, 和更多的 that were sold at auction following his death in 1799. Our collection includes many of the titles that 雷恩 owned.

麦克劳林审判报告. 库克 . . . 波士顿,[1859].

Most of the Massachusetts imprints recently added to the collection are books--legal 论文 such as Joseph Angell’s Treatise on the Law of Fire and Life Insurance (Boston, 1855). 但我们也对这本小册子很感兴趣, which relays the proceedings of an 1859 Boston trial regarding the alleged 攻击 and battery by a teacher upon a Roman Catholic pupil for his refusal to recite the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments.

理查德·伯恩，治安法官兼教区官员. 伦敦,1755年. 

针对的是治安法官, who adjudicated many civil matters and less serious criminal offenses, Burn’s work is organized topically in alphabetical order from Alehouses to Wrecks (shipwrecks), with commentary and case and statutory citations for each topic. An early owner of our copy added around 70 pages of annotations and had them bound in at the rear of both volumes. This image is cropped from a scan of two facing pages that contain the owner’s annotations on the topics of Blasphemy, 桥梁, 和盗窃.

Docket Book of the Superior Court of Hampshire County, Massachusetts. 1864-80.

When the trial-level Court of Common Pleas was abolished in 1859, 今天的马萨诸塞州高等法院成立了. This docket book records what happened at the grand jury phase in over 200 Hampshire County cases involving larceny, 伪造, 攻击, 纵火, 等. Entries with a “true bill” or “bill found” notation show that the grand jury indicted the defendant, while “no bill” indicates a finding of insufficient evidence to indict. Docket books such as this one allow us to see exactly what types of cases were going into the court system, 还有谁牵涉其中.

Writ of Attachment for Noah Webquish in Action Brought by James Otis. 马萨诸塞州巴恩斯特布尔，1733年.

In addition to collecting books that were commonly used by working lawyers, we also collect documents that actually were produced by or on behalf of these lawyers. 奥蒂斯是马萨诸塞州著名的律师和法官. In 1733, he represented Noah Webquish’s son Phillip on a capital charge and helped him avoid execution, 但威奎什显然没有付账. 奥蒂斯提起诉讼是为了收取律师费. Our collection includes several items related to Otis and his son, James Otis Jr., also a lawyer and a famous patriot of the American Revolution (“taxation without representation is tyranny”). 

的ophilus P纵火s, Plaintiff’s Brief in an Ejectment Case before the Supreme Judicial Court. 米德尔塞克斯县，马萨诸塞州，1794年.

This eight-page document represents P纵火s’s detailed analysis of a complicated inheritance case involving multiple parcels of Sudbury land. 他引用了很多资料, including English case reports like those of Cowper and Croke (Massachusetts cases wouldn’t be published in a reporter for ten more years) and 论文 like Fearne on Contingent Remainders. P纵火s would go on to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court from 1806 until his death in 1813.  

查尔斯·格林的摘要书. 雅典，缅因州(1816- 1833.

While we do collect material that illuminates the working lives of more famous lawyers like James Otis and 的ophilus P纵火s, we tend to focus on lesser-known attorneys with typical practices. Docket books and account books often provide the best glimpses into their lives as lawyers. 

查尔斯·格林在缅因州从事普通法律业务. 他的案卷里有1500多条记录, 有预先打印的栏目标题, 格林处理过涉及诽谤的案件, 违反合同, 未付票据托收, 侵权行为, 和更多的. 

威廉·杰弗里·里德的账簿. 伊斯特波特，缅因州，1826年至1827年. 

Read, like Charles Greene, was another Maine lawyer in the early days of Maine’s statehood. As our friends at Lawbook Exchange wrote in the item’s description, Read’s account book “illuminates the daily work of his fledgling practice: dispensing advice, 生产传票, 起草契约，采购办公用品.” He occasionally accepted goods like firewood, paper, and quills as payment for his services. Just as his practice was gaining traction, Read died suddenly in 1829 at age 29.