ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW 
Lord
Byron’s Ancestor —
BROADSIDE, 1709
Gordon,
George Gordon, duke of. Broadside.
Begins: “February 4th 1709. Unto the right honourable the Lords of Council
and Session, the petition of George Duke of Gordon...” [Edinburgh, 1709].
Folio (31.5 cm, 12.4"). [1] p.
Scarce: No holdings were located by
ESTC, RLIN, OCLC, or NUC Pre-1956.
• Creased with slight soiling along crease, edges slightly ragged, otherwise in good condition; now in a Mylar folder. Tipped onto a blank leaf bearing a watermark of 1826.
English
Law — Woman
PrinterGreat Britain. Court of Common Pleas. Reports. 1682–1704. The reports and entries of Sir Edward Lutwyche, Kt. Serjeant at law, and late one of the judges of the Court of common Pleas...made very useful for students and practisers of the common law. By W. Nelson of the Middle-Temple, Esq. [London]: Eliz. Nutt & R. Gosling, 1718. Folio (33.1 cm, 13"). [14], 528, [36 (index)] pp.
• ESTC T8304. Contemporary full calf, covers framed in blind using double fillets on three sides and a floral roll on the fourth; rebacked and corners redone at some point using lighter calf, gilt-stamped leather title label. Abraded and worn, with front hinge(inside) tender. Pages age-toned, some more so than others; yet the volume almost entirely free of spotting. (Our image is a bit distorted, above right — Nutt & Gosling could print in straight lines, and did!)
Keeping
the Peace in EdinburghGreat
Britain. Laws, statutes, etc. 1702–14 (Anne).
Copy of her Majesties commission to the justices of peace of Edinburgh shire,
with the powers and instructions to the whole justices in North Britain. [Edinburgh,
1708]. Folio (31.5 cm, 12.4"). 4 pp.
ESTC describes only Scottish holdings of this item.
• ESTC T200651. Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper; in a Mylar folder. Darkened, last page with a short closed tear and with light-colored staining partially obscuring a few letters.
Now
IncludingLeatherworkersGreat
Britain. Laws, statutes, etc., 1727–60 (George II).
Anno regni Georgi II...decimo tertio...[An act to explain and amend an act made
in the first year of the reign of her late Majesty Queen Anne, intituled, an act
for the more effectual preventing the abuses and frauds of persons employed in
the working up the woollen, linen, fustian, cotton, and iron manufactures of this
kingdom; and for extending the said act to the manufactures of leather]. London:
John Basket, 1739. Folio (30.5 cm, 12.1"). [1] f., 175–83, [1 (blank)] pp.
Respectably produced in the contemporary style of English law-printing, set almost entirely in gothic with a large initial containing trumpet-blowing cherubim.
• ESTC N51532. Disbound from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder. Title-page with small tear to outer margin, lower outer corner lost. Pages clean and crisp.
An
Act to AidChippendale,
Hepplewhite, & Others
Great Britain.
Laws, statutes, etc., 1760-1820 (George III). Anno regni Georgii III...undecimo....
[An Act to Explain an Act Made in the Eighth Year of the Reign of His Late Majesty
King George the First, Intituled, An Act Giving Further Encouragement for the
Importation of Naval Stores..., So Far as Relates to the Importation of Unmanufactured
Wood of the Growth and Product of America....] London: Pr. by Charles Eyre and
William Strahan, 1771. Folio. [1] f., pp. 999-1002. • Removed from a volume and old sewing holes visible in inner margins. Last leaf detached and reattached with archival-quality tissue tape. A clean copy.
An
Act to Aid the
BEER
Industry
Great Britain.
Laws, statutes, etc., 1760-1820 (George III). Anno regni Georgii
III...undecimo.... [An Act for Granting a Bounty upon the Importation of White
Oak Staves, and Heading, from the British Colonies or Plantations in America....]
London: Pr. by Charles Eyre and William Strahan, 1771. Folio. [1] f., pp. 1227-1234.
• Removed from a volume and resewn. A clean copy.
Making
West
Indies Investments Safe
for AllGreat
Britain. Laws, statutes, etc. 1760–1820 (George III).
Anno regni Georgii III...decimo tertio...[An act to encourage the subjects of
foreign states to lend money upon the security of freehold or leasehold estates,
in any of His Majesty’s colonies in the West Indies...]. London: Charles
Eyre & William Strahan, 1773. Folio (31 cm, 12.2"). [1] f., 299–306
pp. 
A good example of the solid, workaday English law-printing of its period, opening with an attractive foliate initial crowned with a seated griffin.
• ESTC N57352. Removed from a nonce volume. Pages clean save for some very minor browning in outer margins.
Power to the Jury 
Great Britain. Parliament. Debates in both houses of Parliament on the bill introduced by the Rt. Hon. Charles James Fox, for removing doubts respecting the functions of juries in cases of libel: with the questions addressed by the House of Lords to the judges thereon, and their answers, to which is subjoined, the Statute. London: Pr. for J. Johnson, 1792. 8vo (19 cm;7.5"). [2] ff., 160 pp.
Click the title-page image for an enlargement. • ESTCT66856. Recent full brown specked calf, cover gilt-tooled in the Cambridge style. Raised bands on spine accented with gilt beading on bands and defined by gilt rules above and below each band. A nice clean copy. (21733)
Impeaching
a Signer & Another Hogan, Edmund. The Pennsylvania state trials: Containing the impeachment, trial, and acquittal of Francis Hopkinson, and John Nicholson ... vol. I. Philadelphia: Pr. by Francis Bailey for Edmund Hogan, 1794. 8vo (21.6 cm, 8.5"). xii, 776 pp.
Click the interior images for enlargements. Signer of the Declaration Francis Hopkinson was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of accepting payments from litigants, accepting bribes for appointments, and dealing in false certificates, all as an admiralty judge, in 1780, but acquitted by the Senate; Comptroller General John Nicholson was charged in 1792 with trafficking in illegal stock certificates and tampering with state finances, and also acquitted by the Senate. With a list of subscribers, many prominent.
Hogan, the editor/compiler here, makes the point that the account of the Nicholson trial is much more complete than that of Hopkinson's because he was personally present throughout to take it down in shorthand.
• Evans 27132; Sabin 32418. Period-style quarter calf with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands; binding by Starr Bookworks, with its small label. Title-page with institutional rubber-stamp dated 1879. Pages age-toned, with spots of light waterstaining to some upper margins and occasional offsetting. (24324)
Mystery — Scandal? In memoriam Elliott Speer, 1898–1934. East Northfield, Mass.: 1935. Small 8vo. 36 pp.; illus.
He was shot to death in his study on 14 September by a still unknown gunman using a shotgun! The Northfield Schools Bulletin. Vol. XXIII, January 1935, no. 1.
Craig Walley's relatively recent Murder at Mount Hermon: The Unsolved Killing of Headmaster Elliott Speer has resurrected interest in the mystery.
• Original wrappers. Fine. (17126)
“DUTYS”
— Wine
Brandy
Silks
& Linen
(International
Trade). The consequences of a law for reducing the dutys upon
French wines, brandy, silks and linen, to those of other nations. With remarks
on the Mercator. London: A. Baldwin, 1713. 8vo signed in 4s (19.4 cm, 7.625").
24 pp. 
LAW for the Common Man of Pottstown Jacob, Giles. Pocket law dictionary, containing an explanation of the law terms most generally used; selected chiefly from Jacob's law dictionary. Also, a translation, of a number of quotations from the Latin, French, &c. Commonly met with in English authors. Pottstown, [Pa.]: S. Royer, 1828. 16mo (12.2 cm, 5"). 36 pp.
Click the images for enlargements. Provenance: Signed on the front flyleaf by “Thomas M. Rush,” and dated “January 4, 1832.”
Very rare. A search of OCLC and NUC-1956 fails to find any holdings for this item, but we are informed that there is a copy at the Pennsylvania State University library.
• Not in Shoemaker. Later 19th-century leather over marbled paper boards. Just a bit of bug-spotting on binding; small loss of leather at head of spine; traces of rubbing. Interior clean. A very good copy, small and slim enough to fit easily into a pocket.
One doesn't typically think of a workaday little law book as “charming,” but this one is. (21298)
The
“Laws of the Sea”
at a Time When
England Was!the
Law on the Seas
Jacobsen, Friedrich Johann. Laws of the sea, with reference to maritime commerce during peace and war. Baltimore: Edward J. Coale, (J. Robinson, printer), 1818. 8vo (22 cm; 8.75"). xxxv, [1], 636 pp.
Published at a critical period in America's commercial history, this work presents the then prevailing international law on such matters as shipwreck, salvage, abandonment, blockages, embargoes, delivery, demurrage, and neutrality, to mention just a few topics.
Frontier City in
Antebellum America Jefferson City (Missouri). Revised ordinances of the City of Jefferson, revised and digested by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-nine: To which are prefixed The Constitutions of the United States and of the State of Missouri, rules and orders for the government of the Board of Aldermen, and a list of the officers of the city. Jefferson City: W. G. Cheeney, printer, 1859. 8vo. [1 (blank)] f., 145, 14 pp.
Click the images for enlargements. Provenance: Released as a duplicate from the Library of Congress, with the requisite and expected stamps on the title-page and rear free endpaper.
Rare. We only trace one holding beyond the Library of Congress.
• NSTC 2J3897. 20th-century library binding; quarter red cloth shelfback over black paper boards, paper shelf label on front. Original (?) light-blue wrapper bound in, back wrapper lacking. Moderate foxing throughout. Paper flaw affecting but not costing some letters on p. 123. 19th-century library markings noted above. A very good copy. (24454)
One of ThoseWonderfully AMBITIOUS!18th-Century “Sketches”Kames,
Henry Home, Lord. Sketches
of the history of man. Edinburgh: W. Creech, W. Strahan, & T. Cadell,
1774. 4to (27.5 cm, 10.9"). 2 vols. I: xii, 519, [1 (blank)] pp. II: [4], 507,
[1 (blank)] pp. 
Click the images for enlargements. Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate “De la bibliotheque de F. Freudenreich.”
• ESTC T48434; Alston, III, 308; Goldsmiths’-Kress 11089; Sabin 32702. Contemporary speckled calf, neatly rebacked preserving original gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, spines with gilt-stamped thistle decorations; edges and corners rubbed, sides showing small scrapes and discolorations. Residue on pastedowns from sometime removal of bookplates. Pages age-toned, with occasional small spots, and offsetting from binding to in margins of first and last few leaves. All edges speckled.
“I owe no apology to Your Grace . . .”Kinnaird, Charles, 8th Baron. A letter to the Duke of Wellington on the arrest of M. Marinet. London: Pr. [by Charles Wood] for James Ridgway, 1818. 8vo (18.8 cm, 7.375" ). [1] f., 40 pp. 
• NSTC 2K6435, Imprint 1. Removed from a nonce volume. A few light brown spots.
Notebook of the
First Lawyer in Boston — The 19th-Century Reissue Lechford, Thomas. Plain dealing or news from New England. Boston: J.K. Wiggin and Wm. Parsons Lunt, 1867. 4to (cm). xl, 160, [2], 203–11, [1 (blank)] pp. (text complete despite pagination).
Click the interior images for enlargements. 285 copies were printed; this is no. 180. The publication was dedicated to collector (“and careful reader”) George Brinley, Esq.
• Sabin 39642. Recent black moiré cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Several pages (including title-page) with faint shadows of institutional rubber-stamps, mostly effaced. Many signatures unopened; two index leaves with tears in upper margins from clumsy opening. Pagination shifts between text and index. (23906)
Documentingthe Sale of a SlaveLloyd, William L. A.L.S. to Garret D. Wall. [New Jersey or Pennsylvania], 22 May 1819. 12mo (6.125" x 8"), 1 p.
Click the image to the left Garret D. Wall was a lawyer in, and later a Senator from, New Jersey.
• Written in a clear hand. Fold along horizontal middle of document. Light stain and residue of mounting into an album. Lacks integral address leaf. Old price and dealer code (Sessler’s) in pencil in lower margin.
TO Part III
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