Notes on Cases Argued before the High Court of Errors and Appeals

Jackson, MS, 1835-1837. The Bench Book of Chief Justice William L. Sharkey: A Unique Antebellum Mississippi Supreme Court Manuscript (1835-1837) [Sharkey, William L. (1798-1873)]. Notes on Cases Argued before the High Court of Errors and Appeals. Jackson, MS, 1835-1837. Quarto (7-1/2" x 6-1/4"; 17.8 x 15.9 cm). 130 pp. Content in a neat, highly legible cursive hand to rectos and versos. Bound in contemporary quarter sheep over marbled boards, gilt-ruled spine. A commercial blank book manufactured in the North, featuring a copperplate pictorial title vignette on the first leaf captioned "Album, New York, 1832" and text block sections in various pastel paper stocks. Moderate rubbing to boards, heavier wear to extremities, spine ends, and corners; rear joint starting but text block remains secure. Moderate interior toning with faint dampstaining to early leaves; large fragments missing from the final two leaves, and several leaves neatly excised from the center and rear (with stubs remaining). Autograph signature of William L. Sharkey alongside his handwritten, crossed-out title trial "Notes on Cases Argued" and subsequent finalized header "Arguments Argued in the High Court of" to the front free endpaper. Later ownership inscriptions and address of Miss Hattie Holling of Yazoo City, Mississippi, to the front endpapers and pastedown. Accompanied by three loose leaves of contemporary legal notes and an original receipt for a law journal subscription laid in. $7,500. * This remarkable personal judicial notebook was kept by William L. Sharkey during his foundational early years as Chief Justice of the Mississippi High Court of Errors and Appeals-the state's supreme court. Sharkey, a Tennessee-born lawyer who later emerged as an unyielding Southern Unionist, provisional governor during Reconstruction, and U.S. Senator-elect, held the state's highest judicial post from 1832 to 1851. His tenure began immediately following the ratification of Mississippi's landmark 1832 Constitution, a radical Jacksonian document that made Mississippi the first state in the nation to transition to an entirely democratically elected judiciary. Spanning the July Term of 1835, the December Term of 1836, and the January Term of 1837, the manuscript comprises roughly 50 highly detailed entries that serve as personal case reports. Because early Mississippi frontier jurispr.…