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viii, [4], 444 & index pages; Full contemporary calf, spine label lettered in gilt. Binding intact and serviceable, but showing wear and scuffs, missing a small triangular piece of leather from the gutter margin of the front cover -- with slight defects and dark (candle burn?) marks at the head and tail of the spine. Moderate damp mark to the top margins of the final half of the text block. With the ownership signature in ink at the top margin of the title page of a jurist and office holder from the earliest years of the American Republic: Samuel Henshaw -- [1744 1809] of Milton, Boston, and Northampton. Henshaw graduated from Harvard in 1773 with a degree in theology. A voice problem led him to give up preaching and go into law. Henshaw had served as collector of the customs at Boston under the state government. Just after the adoption of the U. S. Constitution, Henshaw wrote letters seeking employment in significant public positions to President Washington and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. [See: Samuel Henshaw to George Washington, 18 June 1789 (Washington Papers) 'May it please your ExcellencyI have just been informed, it is the expectation of your Excellency that each person who wishes to be honored with any office under the federal Government, should make application for it in person, or in writing I therefore, humbly beg leave to offer myself as a Candidate for an office in the Revenue Department for the Port of Boston. I believe I may assure your Excellency, that no Person in Massachusetts, has a more perfect knowledge of the business of that Department than myself.I have had the honor of being Collector of Impost & Excise for the Port of Boston & County of Suffolk, from the first establishment of those Duties in this State, untill I resigned my office in 1787." Henshaw's letter to Alexander Hamilton survives also, in the archives [ (Hamilton Papers), writing from Northampton [ Massachusetts ] March 15, 1791 . Henshaw asks to be appointed inspector of revenue in Massachusetts. Henshaw eventually became Judge of the Court of Common Pleas at Northampton, Massachusetts and served as a Trustee of Williams College from 1802-1809. The author, John Impey [who died in 1829] was a member of the Inner Temple for over sixty years; he practised as an attorney at 3 Inner Temple Lane, and was for many years, until 1813, one of the attorneys of the sheriff's court of London and Middlesex. His books contain the first systematic account of the practice of the two great common law courts -- The Court of Common Pleas and the King's Bench. The (only) London edition of 'The Modern Pleader' was published in 1794. This Dublin edition from 1794 was also the sole edition from the Irish Book trade. The fact that this Dublin example was used by a generation or two of American lawyers is representative of the fact that the law books from Dublin found their way into Amerian hands quite frequently. As a group, the Dublin editions were often priced at half (or somewhat less) than the copies issued in London. Even though Sir Edward Coke had called the court "the lock and key of the common law" the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. 66), merged the Common Pleas, Exchequer, King's Bench and Court of Chancery into one body, the High Court of Justice The Court of Common Pleas thus ceased to exist. Interestingly, there are still Courts of Common Pleas in the United States -- in Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Delaware. The former Courts of Common Pleas in New York and New Jersey and Massachusetts have ceased to exist, as have the Courts of that name in Ireland.
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