The Reports of Sir George Croke, Knight, Volume I (2 books)

Volume one only. "A Work of Credit and Celebrity" Croke, Sir George [1560-1642]. Grimston, Sir Harbottle [1603-1685], Translator and Editor. Leach, Thomas [1746-1818], Editor. Reports of Sir George Croke, Knight, Formerly One of the Justices of the Courts of King's-Bench and Common-Pleas, Of Such Select Cases as Were Adjudged in the Said Courts During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Collected and Written in French, By Himself; Revised and Published in English, By Sir Harbottle Grimston, Baronet, Master of the Rolls. Corrected, With Marginal Notes and references to the Later Reports, And Other Books of Authority, by Thomas Leach, Esq. Of the Middle Temple, Barrister at Law [VOLUME I ONLY]. London: Printed for E. and R. Brooke, Bell-Yard, Temple-Bar; And T. Whieldon, Fleet-Street, 1790. 2 volumes. Octavo (9-1/2" x 6"; 24.13 x 15.24 cm). Contemporary calf with early rebacking, blind fillets to boards, blind fillets and red and black lettering pieces to spines, hinges reinforced. Light rubbing and a few minor stains to boards, front boards detached, moderate rubbing to extremities with wear to corners, rear hinges cracked. Moderate toning to interior, light foxing to sections of text, later owner stamp of William Dudley Foulke to front boards, spines and front free endpapers. $100. * Fourth edition. Croke stood for judicial independence. His collection of reports, which include cases from 1582 to 1641, was, notes James Kent, "a work of credit and celebrity" that has "sustained its character in every succeeding age." Grimston, 2nd Baronet, Member of Parliament and later Speaker of the House of Commons, was Croke's son-in-law. Leach was a notable legal writer. A New York-born alumnus of Columbia and Columbia Law School who lived most of his adult life in Indiana, William Dudley Foulke [1848-1935] was a lawyer who had a notable career as a Progressive polician and social reformer. He is better known, however, for his distinguished work as a literary critic, poet, translator and journalist. Kent cited in Wallace, The Reporters 198-205. English Short-Title Catalogue T98372.…