Select Cases Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery, Before the Late Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal and the Late Lord Chancellor King, from the year 1724 to 1733 with Two Tables, One of the Names of the Cases, and the Other of the Principal Matters
by Great Britain, Court of Chancery
| Select Cases Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery | ||
 at the College of William & Mary. |
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| Author | Great Britain, Court of Chancery | |
| Published | London, In the Savoy: Printed by E. and R. Nutt, and R. Gosling for H. Lintot, D. Browne, and J. Shuckburgh | |
| Date | 1740 | |
| Language | English | |
This book is a compilation of selected cases from the English Court of Chancery.[1]It was compiled in 1740 by "a gentleman of the temple."[2]The contained cases date from 1724-1733 and were argued before the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, acting collectively in executing the office of the Lord Chancellor[3], and Lord Chancellor Peter King, 1st Baron King (c. 1669- July 22, 1734)[4] The reporter contains explanatory case notes in the margins of the text throughout the book.
The Court of the Chancery was a civil court. It was formed to be an alternative to the traditional common law courts, which had become "increasingly rigid and inflexible."[5] Conversely, "The chancery was relatively cheap, efficient, and just; during the 15th and 16th centuries, it developed spectacularly at the expense of the common-law courts."[6] In addition to its influence on the legal and judicial sector, the development of the court also influenced the English language as a whole.[7] "[T]he quantity of paperwork created by Chancery helped set the spelling and grammar rules of an evolving language, as well as the visual appearance of English letters."[8]
The American colonies did not have chancery courts. This led to the devisement of alternative forms of equity jurisdiction. Especially in New England, they began to adopt a "Practice of Petitioning" to the legislature, "prompting it to act as a legislative court that asserted its authority in this area and transacted equity business."[9] When filling the gap that the chancery court left, the legislature began to embody a role that the chancery court had not filled in Britain.[10] In fact, the governor of Massachusetts Thomas Pownall pointed to this difference at the time as an indicator that "the Massachusetts government had already acquired an independence from the metropolitan government."[11] Because of this, the chancery courts, or lack thereof, could have been a revealing topic of study for a reader such as Wythe, who had reason to care about comparative approaches to government, especially during the late eighteenth century as the American colonies approached independence.
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
The Brown Bibliography[12] suggests Wythe owned the 1740 edition of Select Cases Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery based on Wythe's reference to these reports in his arguments for Bolling v. Bolling, "'Lord Chancellor [King]: This renewal lease, tho' for lives, shall follow the nature of the original one, and go to the executors as administrators of the infant as that should have gone ..."[13] The Wolf Law Library has yet to find a copy of this title.
See also
References
- ↑ E. and R. Nutt, and R. Gosling, Select Cases Argued and Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery Before the Late Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal and the Late Lord Chancellor King, from the Year 1724 to 1733: With Two Tables, One of the Names of the Cases, and the Other of the Principal Matters (London, 1740).
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ "The Great Seal Act of 1688." 1 William & Mary c 21.
- ↑ "Peter King, 1st Lord King, Baron of Ockham." The Peerage. 2012.
- ↑ "Chancery Division," Britannica, last modified October 19, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chancery-Division
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ "The Court of Chancery," Smithsonian Institution Archives. https://siarchives.si.edu/history/tale-two-sisters/chancery-court
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Jack Greene, "Thomas Pownall and the Limits of Royal Authority in Late Colonial Massachusetts Bay." Massachusetts Historical Review 20 (2018): 161.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid at 160.
- ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, 2009, rev. 2023) Microsoft Word document (on file at the Wolf Law Library, William & Mary Law School).
- ↑ Bernard Schwartz, Barbara Wilcie Kern, R. B. Bernstein, eds., Thomas Jefferson and Bolling v. Bolling: Law and the Legal Profession in Pres-Revolutionary America (San Marino, CA: The Huntington Library; New York: New York University School of Law, 1997), 307.