Notes on Cases, Jackson, MS, 1835-1837

Detailed Case Notes of an Important Early Mississippi State Supreme Court Judge [Manuscript]. [Mississippi]. [Sharkey, William L. (1798-1873)]. [Notes on Cases]. [Jackson, MS, 1835-1837]. [130] pp. (some leaves removed from center and rear). Three leaves of notes and a receipt (for a law journal subscription) laid in. Quarto (7-1/2" x 6-1/4"; 17.8 x 15.9 cm). Quarter sheep over marbled boards, gilt spine, copperplate pictorial vignette to first leaf captioned "Album, New York, 1832," sections of text block in various colors. Moderate rubbing to boards, heavier rubbing to extremities, with wear to spine and corners, rear board just beginning to separate, but secure. Moderate toning to interior, faint dampstaining to first few leaves of text block, large sections lacking from final two leaves, content in neat hand to rectos and versos, Sharkey's signature, "Arguments Argued in the High Court of" and crossed-out note reading "Notes on Cases Argued," to front free endpaper, later signatures and address (of Miss Hattie Holling of Yazoo City) to front free endpaper and pastedown. $7,500. **THIS DESCRIPTION IS TRUNCATED DUE TO CHARACTER LIMITS. PLEASE CONTACT US FOR A COMPLETE VERSION.** * Born in Tennessee, Sharkey was a lawyer, judge and politician who spent most of his life in Mississippi, which became a state in 1817. He served a single term in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1828 to 1829 and was the U.S. Consul in Havana, Cuba from 1851 to 1854. A staunch Unionist, he was Mississippi's commissioner on Reconstruction and its provisional governor in 1865. Appointed to the U.S. Senate, he wasn't seated when the legislature failed to ratify the 13th Amendment. He then retired from politics and returned to his legal practice. Sharkey compiled the manuscript offered here when he was one of the three justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court (then called the High Court of Errors and Appeals), a post he held from 1832 to 1851. It is a collection of notes on cases heard before that court in July Term, 1835, December Term, 1836, and January Term, 1837, about 50 in all. Most of these concern property and estates. Most of these are quite detailed, filling several pages, and are, in effect, case reports. There are very few changes or corrections, which suggests these entries were compiled from an earlier set of notes.…